


Whirlwinds of Destiny

by elenapadmeamidala



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Twilight Series - All Media Types
Genre: Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, Crossover, Crossover Pairings, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-08
Updated: 2019-07-08
Packaged: 2020-06-24 20:00:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 32,383
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19730761
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elenapadmeamidala/pseuds/elenapadmeamidala
Summary: There is more to the Swan Family than meets the eye. What secret has her family hidden from her? How will it affect her and her relationship with the Pack and the Cullens? THIS IS AN M-RATED CROSSOVER STORY. If you are under 18. STAY AWAY UNTIL YOU ARE OLD ENOUGH!





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I got a PM a few month ago on fanfiction.net, that there are hardly any good TwilightXHarry Potter Crossovers with Bella/Draco pairing around and if I would consider giving it a try. Then I did my research on fanfiction.net and there really weren't any good ones. Not sure about Archive of our own yet. 
> 
> Not sure if my writing even remotely qualifies as good writing, but I'll give my best. 
> 
> For those who are diehard fans of twilight, please know that I mostly rewrite Bella into a strong, independent character. I have major issues with how weak and codependent Bella was portrayed in the Twilight series. So, if you can't take Twilight Bashing, and there will be plenty of showing how unhealthy Bella's relationships were, then this fic might not be the one for you. 
> 
> I'm also very happy to receive CONSTRUCTIVE feedback.

Today was new moon, the silent night was pitch black and curiously no sound could be heard from the large dark woods. Although she was rather tired she was afraid of slipping into slumber as she would most likely experience another nightmare. Or were those premonitions? Lately her nightmares were much more vivid and forced her to have some sort of déjà-vu later in the day. She was so tired of it all. Yes, she had her immortal boyfriend/fiancé again, but unfortunately she had lost her best friend with it. She had tried to contact him but he did not respond and when she had tried to drive to the reservation, Edward had manipulated her car in order to protect her, but she could not leave this situation unresolved. Finally her exhaustion took over and she slipped into an uneasy sleep.

_Strong warm arms wrapped around her as soft lips heatedly ghosted her over her neck and trailed small kisses down to her collarbone. Bella enjoyed the ministrations and sighed contently as she could someone lying beside her, radiating warmth as his hands started to explore her body further. One hand was carefully stroking her hair, while the other sensually cupped her breast for a second and Bella heard a faint moan escape her lips. Letting the pads of his thumb go over her nipples, she could feel them harden under his fingertips. He then withdraw his hand, causing her withering under him. A second later she could feel his hot breath replacing his hand as he was placing a soft kiss on them making her moan again. He was very attentive towards them as he kissed both of them taking his time and Bella withered again moaning as her pulse sped up and she wanted him to do something. She used her hand to get a hold of him as she could feel him coming closer to her mouth again and he kissed her hotly with promise for something more brushing his lower body over her abdomen. Bella responded to his heated kiss and pulled at his silky hair to get another, which he returned with a rumbling chuckle. She could feel him trailing kisses downwards her body again, taking her already hardened nipples in his hot mouth again, which caused her to moan again at the wicked sensations. Shaking in anticipation she could feel him slowly dragging his hand down her abdomen, then hold in a moan as he continued and brought it further down south. Bella whimpered as she felt his fingers brush against her clit. This is what she wanted but had always been denied by her boyfriend._

_She shuddered once more as his mouth reattached itself to her nipple and his fingers continued to assault her clit which slowly had become damp. Rolling her clit in between his fingers and gently brushing it, her breath hitched as she could feel her urgency growing. She wanted him now. He brushed his hands over her abdomen and over her breasts again, pulled her closer . He leaned forward stretching her legs and gave her a soft kiss on her swollen lips again which she gladly returned. This was it. This was the moment she had been waiting for. But nothing happened for a heartbeat until… she could feel his hot labored breath at her entrance and a second later he pushed something warm and wet inside her and Bella let out a surprised squeal as he pushed his tongue inside her. Bella’s hands found his silky hair out of instinct as his hands gripped her thighs while his tongue expertly swirled along her walls. Bella arched back feeling his hot and wet tongue slither inside of her. Panting she couldn't help but let out a throaty moan and trembled as the sensitive nerves in her lower regions were stimulated. It felt ecstatic and she wanted more._

_Bella supported herself unsteadily on her forearms and managed to pry open her eyes. Shuddering and whimpering, she spotted, to the sight of a white blonde head busily moving between her legs. Whatever this dream was, she wanted it to last for a bit longer._

_"Mmmm…Ah, ah!" She moaned desperately, her eyes blinded by lust._

_She could feel her orgasm beginning to build, driving her insane as she wanted to finally release it. With each thrust and swivel of his tongue in and out, back and forth, she felt her sanity leave her a little more. She could feel the build continue._

_Tumbling uncontrollably under him he withdrew his tongue from within her and rolled it against her sensitive spot sparking, the down fall of the build._

_Bella’s head rolled back, and her hand griped his hair as her back arched. A passion burst inside of her belly, flaming her through and through. Her eyes clenched shut and she could no longer support herself, her torso crashed to the bed._

_The last thing she was able to make out in the dark before falling into oblivion were two beautiful, lustful silver eyes and blond hair staring straight at her._

Bella awoke with a loud groan and saw her fiancé with a shocked face pinned against a wall. He was holding his breath.

“Bella, I’m sorry, but I can’t stay with you tonight.” he choked out. “You smell too divine in your current state and I wouldn’t be able to hold myself back.”

Bella, feeling still heavily aroused from her wet dream didn’t like to hear it and pulled back her blanket while suggesting hoarsely:” Then don’t.” She watched Edwards face turn into a longing and hungry face, but he caught himself because she only blinked and he was gone and the window was also closed.

Frustrated, she let herself fall back into her soft bed and noticed that she still felt wet and aroused. This was the second dream she had this month about the blond young man and she had no rational explanation, why her mind kept conjuring up this blonde young man.

* * *

Hundreds of miles away, on a different continent the young blonde Malfoy heir was roused from his deep slumber. He knew that his parents worried about him spending most of his days in bed since he had reached maturity. He kept dreaming of her and luckily was in control of her dreams and he had wanted to take it further, but something had woken her from her slumber. He could feel her sexual frustration and even though the second shared dream brought some relief to him, he wanted the real thing. He wanted to have his mate and finally complete the bonding. But he had unfortunately no idea where the Swan Family could be hiding. His parents had used all their resources and influence (as long as they had them) to find Charlie and Renée and their beautiful daughter, but the search had not been fruitful. 

After Voldemort’s second reign their influence had suffered terrible and they were unable to use all their former contacts. The Swan’s had been friends of their family, yet they had unfortunately sided with the order and after Voldemort’s first demise through Harry Potter they had reluctantly taken the invitation for the at this time newly created Malfoy New Year’s Ball, where he had unconsciously taken the first step to make her his mate. Or rather the Veela genes had taken over and marked her as his mate. This mark was invisible to others, yet it established an emotional connection between the two mates. Her parents had been scared at finding out what he had done to her. Especially at such a young age. Normally Veelas didn’t mark their mates until adolescence, but nobody in the family had been able to discern why he had done it before that. As far as he knew, he was the only male Veela, who had marked his mate at such a young age. She had been in terrible pain and fever for a whole month as the connection had been established and in that month the Swans had bolted and left Britain to only Merlin knew where. His father had even placed spies in all the different schools around the world to find her, but it seemed that she had not attended even one wizarding school.

Male Veela’s were rare and usually they were unable to find their mate. His father had not been able to find his, but he still loved his mother very much, especially as she had provided him with an heir. But not being his Veela’s mate, his birth had been difficult for her and the healers had advised her to let Draco stay an only child. He, however, wanted to provide the Malfoy line with more than one child as he remembered how lonely he had been and with his mate it could be possible. But he needed to find her first.

He had felt her desperation and depression month ago and had renewed the efforts to find her as he didn’t want her to suffer or be in danger. His neck hair was constantly standing straight which indicated that his mate was in constant danger and he wanted her to be safe. And to be with him of course.

He had been able to use the weak emotional link he shared with her to subconsciously enter her dreams and she was absolutely stunning and divine and he wanted her and get to know her better. He mused about his mate and suddenly had an epiphany. They had searched everywhere in the Wizarding world. What if, the Swan Family had wanted to protect her from the Malfoy’s in hiding in the Muggle World. That would have been quite clever as the Malfoy’s did not really know anything about the Muggle world. He would need to share his suspicions with his parents early in the morning, but for know he needed to take care of something else. The house elves would definitely need to change the sheets of his bed again later.


	2. Chapter 2

Bella was currently visiting Jacob again and he was glad that she had taken the deal, but it also gave him time to talk to his former wife. To protect their young daughter from the Malfoy’s they had been forced to bind her magic until she would become of age in the Muggle World. Unfortunately he and Renée were from powerful magical lines which could be traced further back than the founders of Hogwarts. Their family’s were old practitioners of the Old Religion and knew magical secrets which should be kept from the other magical community. They were old families, but would have never been able to call themselves “Purebloods” as they had also married Muggleborns. Their beloved daughter was the joining of both lines and her magic was therefore very strong and they had to repeat the binding process several times as magic had resurfaced. Since her becoming an adult, the block was broken and he had already seen the signs again. Her nightmares came from her mother’s side of the family as she was able to tap into the different currents of magic and they would only get worse. Renée would need to visit Gringotts to get her family heirloom, a metal bracelet covered in runes and an amethyst, which would protect her from nightmares and would only let the premonitions through to her. 

The month after Draco Malfoy had bitten Bella had been the worst they had endured as she had appeared to be dying. As she had been bitten so young she would not have survived as her body had not yet been ready, yet the magic surging within her had saved her. He wasn’t sure if they should tell her, what their family was or what she was, but judging from her behavior and her accidental bursts of magic they would probably forced to act or MACUSA would try to investigate and that was not something he wanted.

He sat back into his armchair and took out a small mirror. “Renée Higginbotham Dwyer” he said and a few moments later her face appeared in the mirror.

“Long time, no see, Charly.” She greeted him cheeringly. “How are you?”

“Like you have to ask.” he grinned shortly, but became serious again. “You do know that Bella brings her boyfriend with her on her visit, right?” he asked.

“Yes, of course I’m aware of it. But it was a bit surprising. She sent the second mail informing me a day later.“

“But he seems rather sweet, don’t you think?” his ex-wife asked him.

“Actually, I would prefer him to dissolve to be never seen again. Jacob is much better for her and the way she reacted, I think he sprung this on her. He literally suggested that it would be a good idea to see you before Bella graduates. Not sure, if it is just me, but it sounded as if that was some sort of code between them.” he explained.

“What code? Maybe you’re just a bit paranoid.” Renée suggested with raised eyebrow, but Charly knew her well enough to see that the wheels in her beautiful head were turning.

Charly scoffed:”No, something is off about him and Billy has made insinuations, which I can’t ignore anymore and she may not be catatonic again, but she seems way too dependent on the Cullen boy. What if she unconsciously tries to compensate for her Veela bond that young Malfoy has forced on her?”

Renée nodded clearly in deep thought. “It’s possible. What did Billy insinuate?”

He huffed:”I don’t know, we had one too many and he had joked about the Cullen’s being really strange and that they look almost identical to a family which had lived in Forks a century earlier and that he has never seen one of them eat anything nutritious, which is probably why they are so pale. From the handshakes I had with them I can definitely say that they have a lower body temperature and that cannot be explained through the wet weather here or possible low blood pressure. I have an appointment with the local historian this weekend, to leaf through old newspapers and fotos. Maybe I can find pictures of the mentioned family. Their eye colour is also quite strange. I mean it is possible that they all have Wilson’s but that would be too big a coincidence as they are not biologically related. But I think that they could be something else. ”

Renée gasped:”You think that the Cullen’s are one of Nimue’s creations? There has never been actual prove of their existence, only rumors. And we don’t know how to destroy these creatures, if they are real.” 

“It is possible. As a high priestess, she had the power to mimic life. And it also fits because, ahm, you know, ahm. I had the talk with Bella.” he said cringing as he heard Renée’s explosive laughter.

“You know, I beat you to it years ago, really.” she gasped laughing and wiping tears of laughter from her cheeks.

“Yeah. She told me that too, but she told me that Edward” he spat her boyfriend’s name, “is old fashioned and doesn’t believe in pre-nuptial sex.”

“Oh, please. More than half of the rural communities in America have those old believes. That’s not a valid argument.” She countered.

“Renée, if the Cullen’s are what I think they are, then Bella is in grave danger and we need to sort this out fast, before she is turned into one of them.” Charlie insisted.

“Alright, I will keep them as separate as possible, while you further ward the house.” she answered decisively.

“I plan to do that. You should take everything that is highly inflammable out of Bella’s room. Every time she has a nightmare or premonition, her magic slips and something happens. Does that sound familiar to you? I’ve warded her room against her magic, but I thought you should too. Oh, and I also suggest practicing Occlumency until we know more.” he suggested.

“Merlin’s pants! When can we finally live in peace from anything magical.” Renée exclaimed annoyed slipping into her British accent.

* * *

Though it was early, the heat was smothering. The air was so heavy with moisture that just breathing in and out was giving her lungs a workout and the fact that she had barely gotten any sleep at night only made matters worse. Bella had a strange yearning to be at a more temperate place. In her mind she had conjured up landscapes which reminded her of Britain, but apart from her fantasy of her favorite novels, she had no idea why she wanted to be there right now.

“Bella?” her mother asked, looking out past the sand to the crushing waves.

“What is it, Mom?” Bella enquired knowing full well that her mother was very perceptive.

She sighed, not meeting her gaze. “I’m worried about you … and Edward, but primarily about you.

With an apologetic face, her mother finally looked at her when she said his name.

“Oh,” she mumbled, fixing her eyes on a pair of handsome blond joggers as they passed them, drenched with sweat and her mind flashed back to her delicious blond secret, which was sometimes visiting her in her dreams.

“You two are more serious than I’d been thinking,” her mother went on causing Bella to frown, quickly reviewing the last two days in my head. Edward and she had barely touched — in front of her, and ever since her wet dreams had started. She wondered if Renée was about to give her another lecture on responsibility, too.

It wasn’t embarrassing with her mother, but the look she was giving her was not one she new well. And her mother had giving her that particular lecture time and time again in the last ten years.

“There’s something . . . strange about the way you two are together,” she murmured, her forehead creasing over her troubled eyes. “The way he watches you — it’s so . . . , i don’t know protective. Like he’s about to throw himself in front of a bullet to save you or something.”

Bella laughed, though was still not able to meet her gaze. “Is that a bad thing?” she enquired wondering where her mother was going with this.

“No.” She frowned as she struggled for the words. “It’s just _different._ He’s very intense about you . . .

and very careful. I feel like I don’t really understand your relationship. Like, there’s some **secret** I’m

missing. . . .”

“I think you’re imagining things, Mom,” Bella answered quickly, struggling to keep her voice light as her stomach fluttered. She had forgotten how much my mother was able to see. She had often joked about her being a seer. As ridiculous as it sounded. Something about her view of the world cut through all the distractions and pierced right to the truth of things. This had never been a problem before. Until now, there had never been a secret she hadn’t been able to tell her.

“It’s not just him.” She set her lips defensively. “I wish you could see how you move around him.”

“What do you mean?”

“The way you move — you orient yourself around him without even thinking about it. When he moves, even a little bit, you adjust your position at the same time. Like magnets . . . or gravity. You’re like a . . . satellite, or something. I’ve never seen anything like it. … No scratch that. I have seen something similar and it’s called codependency.” Her mother said and Bella could see that her mother was serious.

“Mum, have you watched too much Criminal Minds again?” Bella teased, forcing a smile, but saw that her mother could not be so easily swayed this time. Normally this would have swayed and brought the conversation to another topic, but this time was different. Why? Had she lost her touch?

“In that case, answer me this. You are pining over Jacob, are sad, that you can’t reach your best friend and yet you could easily have used your car to visit him at the reservation. Why haven’t you?” she enquired and Bella hesitated. 

“Mum, it’s complicated.”

“Why, because your Edward has forbidden you to go?” she enquired seemingly neutrally, but Bella could have sworn that her eyes had lightened up gold for a second. But it seemed that she was imagining things. It was also a bit too close to the truth.

“Well, I love Edward, but Mum, believe me, I’m not codependent.” she insisted but her normally very understanding mother smiled sadly at her.

“Bella, you know I love you more than anything, but it is my job to be worried and reading the symptoms of codependency my motherly alarm clocks went off. You were nearly comatose after he has left you for the first time. We had no idea what to do. Here take a look at this.” She handed her the folded paper and Bella skeptically unfolded it and began to read. It was a self help test for Codependency from the National Domestic Violence Hotline. Bella shot her mother an annoyed look, but new that she would not get out of this situation without

**_According to the National Domestic Violence hotline (US), these are some signs that you may be in an emotionally or physically abusive relationship.  
  
_ ** ****_Does your partner:_

**_1.) Look at you or act in ways that scare you?_ **

**_2.) Control what you do, who you see or talk to or where you go?_ **

**_3.) Make all of the decisions?_ **

**_4.) Act like the abuse is no big deal, it's your fault, or even deny doing it?_ **

**_5.) Threaten to commit suicide?_ ** **_  
  
_ ** ****_6.) Threaten to kill you?_

****

**_Has your partner..._ **

**_  
_ ** **_7.) Tried to isolate you from family or friends._ **

**_8.) Damaged property when angry (thrown objects, punched walls, kicked doors, etc.)_ ** **_._ **

**_9.) Pushed, slapped, bitten, kicked or choked you._ ** **_  
  
_ ** ****_10.) Abandoned you in a dangerous or unfamiliar place._

**_11.) Scared you by driving recklessly._ ** **_  
  
_ ** ****_12.) Forced you to leave your home:_

**_13.) Prevented you from calling police or seeking medical attention._ **

**_14.) Views women as objects and believes in rigid gender roles._ **

**_15.) Accuses you of cheating or is often jealous of your outside relationships._ **

**_"If you answered ‘yes' to even one of these questions, you may be in an abusive relationship."._ **

Bella forced herself to smile although some of the questions really hit home and made her question if Edward really loved her as much as she claimed or if he just didn’t realize what he was doing. No. He didn’t realize it. He loved her. The Cullen’s loved her. They just wanted her to be safe from any possible dangers as she was a fragile mortal, who could easily be harmed by creatures of mythology. And he had an upbringing in a different century. This was just how he was socialized, but that didn’t mean that he was abusive. Or was he?

“Thanks for the intervention sheet, mum, but none of the questions are fitting Edward.” she smiled sounding more confident than she actually sounded.

Her mother sighed relieved, but she could spot some lingering doubt in her eyes. “Good to hear.”

“Now that we’ve covered that, you need to tell me all about your naughty dreams, which cause you make that much ruckus at night.” she smirked conspiratorially and laughed at her daughter’s shocked look.

 _How does she know about that?!_ “Charlie told me about ‘the Talk’ and what had brought it on. Seems that your dreams about Edward get quite steamy?” her mother winked at her, but Bella just wanted to be swallowed by the Earth or die of embarrassment. She had woken her father with her dreams again. That must have been really awkward. No wonder he wanted to have ‘the Talk’ with her. 

Bella bit her lower lip. Should I tell her? What’ll Edward think if he finds out? No, maybe she has some advice. “Yeah, my dreams are pretty weird lately” she admitted. “I’m sort of having two sorts of dreams. Nightmares and wet dreams. But it’s not Edward I dream about.”

“So, it’s Jacob?” her mother enquired but Bella shook her head.

“No, I keep dreaming of a blond male with silver eyes.” Her mother sucked in breath and seemed close to a heart attack, but recovered quickly. _That’s strange._

“He must be some Adonis.” her mother remarked laughing hesitantly.

“Yeah, he is.” Bella remarked dreamily, but shook her head to clear it again. “I know I haven’t seen him before, but he seems so familiar. But I don’t know why.”

“Have you spoken to him, in your dream?” her mother asked but Bella just shook her head.

“Not a word. There wasn’t much talking involved.” Bella remarked but was surprised when her mother told her.

“Bella, I want you to promise me that should you ever talk to him, please disclose your location to him. Do you understand me?”

Bella frowned: “But mum, he is just a fragment of my imagination. He is not real.”

“Promise me.” her mother insisted with a pointed look. “In my experience, one can never be too careful and there are things between heaven and earth that we have no explanation for.”

This sounded more like her mother’s New Age Hokuspokus, she was so fond of, but in the back of her mind she intended to speak to the blond young man the next time she would meet him in his dream. Maybe she could get a name from him and she was curious, what her subconscious would throw at her then. But she would keep her promise to disclose her location to him. After all, Vampires and Werewolves were real too. Who was to say that there were not more fantastical beasts around?

* * *

“You actually believe that an old family like the Swan’s would hide in the Muggle world?” the elder Malfoy asked his son for probably the hundredth’s time.

“Yes, father, I do. We know next to nothing about the Muggles, which gives them an advantage. It is the only logical explanation why no ministry on the planet could find them.” Draco argued. He needed his mate. She was in grave danger. He could sense it and it made him itchy. Although he had wanted to ask her about her whereabouts he had always been far too distracted by her in their shared dreams. As pleasant as those were, he finally wanted the real thing.

“They both attended Muggle Studies in Hogwarts.” Narcissa mused, remembering how horribly Lucius had teased Charles about taking it.

“That’s why I got in touch with a former Auror, who is freelancing nowadays and he got in contact with his Muggle counterpart and they are willing to take the case. They had me describing Bella diligently to create a phantom picture, which they are going to run through the databases, if I pronounced that correctly. They assured me that they would find her relatively quickly this way if she is in the Muggle world and provide us with the results.

“That does sound like one last try, Draco. If it fails you are going to marry either Pansy or Astoria Greengrass in a year’s time. I’m engaged in negotiations already.” His father informed him and shook his head as Draco tried to hide a gagging noise.

“This time we will find them.” Draco told him confidently, while Narcissa desperately hoped that he was right. 

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just to let you know. The questions in the chapter are really taken from the National Domestic Violence Hotline (US), it's worth checking out. How many questions did you count that fit with the Twilight Series? Quite a lot, probably.


	3. Chapter 3

Bella was tossing and turning. She felt as if she was on the brink of falling asleep, yet her much desired slumber did not come to her. Edward seemed to be too afraid to come to her room after midnight for some reason. He had promised to come to her room after her mother and stepfather would have gone to bed, but so far he hadn’t turned up. It was strange. She felt sweaty, but when she removed her blanket she felt the much too cold breeze of the air-condition. Counting sheep would not help her finding sleep. Maybe she could try to imagine a cooler landscape.

* * *

_White mist was slowly passing through her mental image, passing through very old white oak trees in a large green forest. Those trees did not look like those in Forks. They were rather alike those she had seen visiting her grandmother when she was still a young child. There was a young pale girl in dark-brown hair holding her grandmother’s frail hand as she was walking through a delicately built stone arc overgrown with ivy. Her entire body was buzzing with energy she could not explain. Everything around seemed to be alive in a very strange way. It was as if she could feel the trees to be alive. But that couldn’t be could it._

_“Grandma? Are those trees alive?” she whispered?_

_Her grandmother, wearing an emerald green cloak smiled knowingly and whispered back._

_“Yes, my dear. Those are Ent females, guardians of the trees, but they have lost their men and need to recover before they can go and look for them.” She lovingly touched one of the large oaks._

_“Here, hidden on our lands they are safe from logging, but others of their kind in the Amazonas were not so lucky. You feel it, don’t you? The magic of this land connecting with the magic of the Ents.” Her grandmother smiled at Bella’s mesmerized look and lead her through the vast forest for hours as the terrain became slightly more uneven. She could hear water splashing and crickets chirping. There needed to be a small waterfall nearby. Where are we going? the little girl thought as the buzzing in her body seemed to intensify. Her grandmother lead her past a large stone wall overgrown with moss until they stopped in front a barely visible gab within the rocks and pressed Bella’s small hands encouragingly. She carefully followed her grandmother and as she stepped through the narrow gap into the large cave. It felt as if something in her was picking up speed and the buzzing became almost unbearable and Bella had trouble breathing. And yet she could not take her eyes of the countless crystals lying in the cave. Some even as tall as she was other’s were hanging from the ceiling. She imagined hearing countless voices in her head and yet the cave was eerily silent except for the tapping of her small feet._

_“What is this place?” she gasped breathlessly turning to her grandmother who seemed to have lost some of her wrinkles. It was as if she had gained a few more years._

_“This is where Magic begun.” she stated ceremoniously. “This is the crystal cave and we are its last guardians. Our family can personally come here to seek guidance or mentally if we have lost our way. But in order to come here mentally, one needs to have seen it personally. This is why we are here now. Isabella Marie Swan.”_

_The voices intensified again and Bella felt overwhelmed. She needed to get out of here. She was sweating, her heartbeat unsteady._

_“Get me out of here, grandmother please.” she begged, but her beloved grandmother looked at her compassionately._

_“The future is hidden to all, but a very few, Bella. You, being the youngest offspring of our family, are one such person. The crystals contain futures that are not yet born. The secrets they reveal at the first visit are unique to you and only to you.”_

_She pointed to one of the crystals that were calling her. “Look. Really Look! Use what you see for good or the magical gifts bestowed on you will turn sour.”_

_Bella was drawn forward through some invisible force and she could not stop herself and look into one of the crystals. She could see herself sitting next to a chubby, pale blond little boy, who shared one of his many hidden sweets with him. He seemed nice but then the scene changed and she could see herself lying on the floor, trembling and clutching her neck as tears and screams of terror were running through her mind. It was deafening and she felt the magic surge within her. She unconsciously rubbed the spot on her neck, where she had been hurt. The breathing became harder for her and she had problems focusing her eyes as black spots appeared and after a second she felt herself falling towards the ground._

_But Bella did not wake. Instead she was now standing in that very cave, yet in her current form. Her Grandmother was nowhere to be seen. She could now remember that she had seen this cave before. This had to be a memory of her early childhood? Something traumatic must have happened otherwise, how she should explain her strange memory. She was drawn to another crystal, but this time she spotted the Cullen family in the vast, damp forests in Forks. Alice seemed to see something and directing all the others in one direction as they were hastily chasing after something. No! Bella gasped. They were chasing a read head. Victoria! The redhead was unfortunately quite clever in evading them zigzagging like a scared rabbit along the riverbed. A fast movement on the other side of the riverbed drew her attention. Huge wolves, which she recognized as the Pack of La Push were also chasing her. The burly Emmet was outstretching his hand and almost reached her, but unfortunately she jumped to the other side again and back to theirs. The Cullen’s hesitation had cost them some valid time and they fought hard to catch her again, but she jumped on the Side of the wolf’s territory again and Emmet followed her, yet was pushed back into the river by one of the wolves, allowing Victoria to escape. No! They let her escape and Bella swore that she could hear a dark chuckle. The scene changed and she saw countless unfamiliar pale faces looking in one single direction. Their eyes were blood red and their faces snarling. She heard another deafening scream and then she saw her father in his most comfortable chair, yet there was blood all around him._

Bella screamed terrified and sat up from her bed, realizing that everything had just been a dream, yet her heart was beating mercilessly in her chest. She heard fast running steps, something falling to the ground and her mother’s cursing. Then the door opened and her mother came in, followed by Edward who looked worried and yet lingered for some reason at the door without actually entering. 

Bella tiredly rubbed her eyes. “Sorry for waking you mum. It was just another nightmare. Nothing to worry about.” she murmured but her mother just pulled her in a hug. “Oh, honey. It’s alright.”

She leaned back and addressed Edward. “Could you give us a minute?” He nodded and disappeared out of sight by walking back to his room. But what her mother did next surprised her: She drew something with her left hand in the air and she heard her murmur something. Did her eyes appear golden for a second? No it couldn’t be.

Her mother turned back to her and took both of her hands. “No, please tell me what you have seen?” she asked.

“It’s strange. It seemed like a memory, but that’s impossible.” Bella shook her head and rubbed her eyes again. “There was a forest and the trees felt alive and a cave. Grandma took me to a crystal cave and…” she stopped. That seemed too strange.

“And?” her mother prodded gently.

“And Grandma bubbled something about us guardians of the cave. The cave, where magic originated or where the old religion, you’re so fond of started, I didn’t get that. I couldn’t breathe. I saw myself as a child. Then lying on some marble floor, holding my neck in pain. I think I fainted and then I was standing in the cave again, but not as a child. As myself and I saw Charlie in the crystal, but there was blood everywhere.” she felt her chest constrict. Her father! She needed to know if he was ok.

“Oh god, we need to call him. Mum, please.” Bella urged scrambling to her feet in order to reach her cell phone.

“Honey, it’s in the middle of the night.” Her mother reminded her, but she continued and dialed her father’s number with racing heart. 

* * *

Charlie had sipped a bit too much beer this evening with the Blacks, Clearwaters and Uleys watching the Play-off game and heated discussion afterwards. Bella was with her mother and he knew that she would put Edward through the ringer. Renée could be just as fierce and dangerous as her ancestors and still appear innocent and naive like. If anyone could find out about the Cullen’s real nature it was her. He was currently napping on Billy’s old and uneven, yet quite comfortable couch. He felt safe at the reservation and he knew that each time Bella was here, she was safe too and Jake was a good kid. He just had no idea why they had fallen out. Just because Jacob had been responsible enough to tell him about their motorbikes? No there had to be more and Leia Clearwater had hinted that Bella’s relationship with the Cullen boy was to blame.

Suddenly he jumped as his phone rang. As the walls in this house were a bit thin, quickly untangled his feet, jumped up from the bed and quickly went outside to prevent his loud cell to wake the entire household.

“Charlie Swan?” he answered on the veranda.

“Dad? Thank god your alive!” he heard Bella’s relieved voice on the other end. “So sorry to wake you up this early, dad, but I had to make sure that you were alive. I know it’s silly but I had a damn realistic nightmare of you being killed by a vampire.” he heard her sigh.

“Ay, Bells. Don’t worry. I wasn’t sleeping anyway. Still at the reservation. Billy nicked my car keys because he was convinced I had drunken a bit too much.” he told her and he heard her sighing relieved.

“How did it go with Renée ?” he asked his daughter. She must have realized by now that her mother was up to something.

“Great.” Bella murmured and cited “Well, no one expects the Spanish inquisition.” which caused Charlie to laugh out loud and he heard Renée laughing too in the background. So she was with Bella. Probably in her room. “That bad, ha?” he chuckled. “It’s a mother’s prerogative to be like that. Tell her well done.”

“I think you can tell her yourself because she wants to talk with you. Just. .. Just be careful, dad.” she answered and he could hear when she handed her mother the phone and he could hear her protest in the background as Renée obviously went out of the room.

“Hi, Charlie” she greeted him and he could hear her putting water in a kettle. She was making tea again. She always made tea to calm herself. Some habits were hard to kill.

“Hi, Renée. Do you know if it was just another nightmare or a premonition?” he asked her and he heard her sigh into the phone.

“I wish I could say that it was just a nightmare, but she remembers the crystal cave and what she has seen was in one of the crystals. I mean of course that does not mean that it will come true, but it is highly likely. I think you should ward your house against anything inanimate.” Renée suggested. Charlie was shocked. The crystal cave was known to be the beginning of the Old Religion, but that Bella was remembering the place was quite something as she had fainted. Her grandmother had carried her all the way back to the house. Due to the magic of both magical lines flowing through her she was more susceptible to the magic currents and had therefore been overwhelmed in the cave.

“Did something else happen, that you wish to share with me?” he enquired. “He was already awake, so they could coordinate further before Bella would arrive back in Forks.

“Yes, as you suggested I warded her room against intruders and her magic, but she almost shattered the wards. Charlie we can’t keep it from her much longer. She is growing too powerful. We need to teach her or her accidental outbursts will attract the MACUSA.” She told him and he silently agreed. He had seen her power grow. They had blocked her magic in order to prevent her from becoming an obscura, but they had to come clean soon.

“What about the Cullen brat?” he enquired

“Has tried to get into Bella’s room several times, but the wards have stopped him. He also can’t overhear anything in her room or in the kitchen because I cancelled any noise leaving these two rooms. He hasn’t eaten very much because he keeps a very specific diet and avoids the sun like a plague. He says he has Lupus, but I’m not buying it. What should we do? From what I remember about the rumours of Nimue’s creations, he seems to fit the description so far. I used the word _inanimate_ for one of the wards for her room and he can’t enter. That’s no coincidence. And…”

“And it suggests that this is a common practice with him and Bella. So, it’s possible that by grounding her, I wasn’t punishing her because he would have sought her out in her room anyway. That’s cross. We need to find out if he sparkles in the sun.” Charlie suggested. “That’s what sets Nimue’s creations apart from the normal vampires and we need to find out how to get rid of them.”

“I agree. I’ll fly to London. Maybe I’ll find something at home and I need to get the bracelet for her from Gringotts.” Renée informed him.

“I just hope that I can avoid the Malfoys somehow or we have another problem to solve. Oh. By the way, Bella’s naughty dreams are about Draco and she believes that he is just a fragment of her imagination” she sighed again.

“Shit!” Charlie cursed. “He is trying to find her through the Veela bond. I swear if I find him I’ll kill him for doing that to her!” He angrily clenched his free fist. 

“Has he spoken to her?” he asked with growing trepidation.

“No, Thank Merlin she has not because there is not much talking involved. I think that Draco is grooming her, without her knowledge but I don’t know how to stop that. We can’t block a Veela Bond.”

“We’ll think of something.” Charlie tried to calm his former wife.

“I’ll just enter Diagon Alley in disguise. No big deal.” Renée told him.

“Aging potion should do.” Charlie suggested smugly remembering the havoc they had created at school.

“Over my dead body!” Renée shot back chuckling. She had one prepared, but would only use it if necessary.

* * *

Renée had taken her phone with her and Bella was close to falling asleep again. She just wished that when the slumber would catch up with her again that her mysterious silver blonde man would be waiting for her. She imagined how he would touch her and she could feel herself grow damp.

* * *

Draco was sitting in the Malfoy Library leafing through countless books about Veelas and their bonds. As he had unfortunately only completed the first step of the bonding process he was still unable to locate her whereabouts, but he could feel her emotions and for some reason she had been terrified for someone a few moments ago and now he could feel her getting rather horny as she was clearly thinking about him. Was she in another time zone? It would explain a lot. If she was sleeping at the moment then she had to be in a later time zone. The last few times they had connected had been days where he had enjoyed staying in bed for relaxation and boredom. With her in his bed, he would certainly not feel bored. He closed his eyes and searched for his mate, who seemed to be waiting for him in their shared dreams, but today he decided to mentally bring her to the library to take her here. With a flick of his wand he sealed the library to make sure to prevent anyone from entering. The last thing he needed was one of his parents walk in on him while having one of his delicious dreams.

* * *

_Her mind replayed flashes of last time as she gazed an old library as she was sitting on a very comfortable chair. She had no idea how she had come here, but it seemed that her wish for her particular slumber had been granted. His lips on her own, her neck, her breasts. The way he would roll each nipple between his teeth with agonizing slowness. She fantasized about the way he would feel inside her, pumping in and out but unfortunately they had never been able to reach that point yet as she had always woken up after the enjoyable foreplay and he seemed to love to tease her._

_She heard a soft moan, which snapped her out of her lusty thoughts. She looked around and saw no one, and it took a while to realize that that this moan had come from her. Her hand had moved down from its place at her side, to her small panties, and had been rubbing her clit through them. She hadn't even realized this had happened, and she blushed a bit, reminding herself she was in a library. Not one of the best places for pleasuring yourself although she would be lying if she hadn’t fantasized about doing it in a library. But which library was that anyway and why was she wearing a British school uniform? Her skirt stopped shortly over her knee caps and she was wearing a white blouse with hideous green and silver tie. She hated the colour green. But it was dark and she seemed to be alone. This was her dream so she could be naughty and nobody would know._

_Instead of removing her hand, she slipped it under her underwear. She was very wet already, but she had already known that from the damp fabric clinging to her.. She bit her lip to stop a gasp from slipping out of her mouth as she flicked her nub once._

_Where was her mystery silver-eyed man when you needed him to get him to take care of the small 'problem' between her legs? Her hand was still in her soaked underwear, when she heard soft footsteps coming closer to her._

_"Why, Bella, I had no idea you had it in you." The person said softly, and she immediately knew who it was as he stepped into her visual field._

_"You!" she gasped when he walked into the small pool of light by her desk. "How long have you been watching me?”_

_He chuckled, and stepped around the table, turning the chair she was sitting in to face him._

_"Long enough, my love" he murmured letting his hot gaze roaming over her dishevelled state, getting onto his knees so that he was kneeling in front of her. He parted her legs slightly, roaming his hands over her inner thigh._

_Bella managed to gasp out, gripping the seat of the bench to stop her from squirming. She knew what was about to come. She wanted it, but she needed to focus. She needed a name first._

_“Stop.” she gasped as his long fingers found themselves in her panties. He was not that patient today it seemed._

_“I don’t think you want me to stop.” he murmured huskily staring hungrily at her with his silver eyes, kissing her upper inner thigh causing Bella to moan again._

_His practiced fingers started rubbing soft circles around her sweet spot without touching it. She whimpered and squirmed, trying to shift so that he was rubbing what she wanted him to rub most. His other hand trailed his way up her leg and under her blouse. His fingertips barely touched her skin as they worked up to fondle her breasts over her bra._

_Bella started to pant quietly._

_”You know my name, but I don’t know yours.” she gasped out trying to get some control back._

_He chuckled and watched her as she squirmed, as his hands worked her delicious body. He decided to stop teasing her, no matter how delicious it was to watch her whimper as he avoided touching her where she wanted to be touched. His finger flicked her clit quickly, and he watched as she moaned softly as he did it again and again. Her hips would buck forward slightly with each flick. He rubbed the bundle of her nerves vigorously, and her hips flew out of the bench and closer to him. The harder he rubbed, the more she bucked and the closer to his face she crept._

_Suddenly, he stopped rubbing and her hips sank back onto the bench. She groaned loudly as he removed his hands from her womanhood. However she gasped when she felt him tear the drenched fabric from its previous position._

_“My name is Draco.” he whispered, gripped her hips and pulled her closer to the edge of the dark wooden bench, until she could feel his hot breath once more on her uncovered lips. His hand crept back up and parted them slightly, and she felt his wicked tongue on her again. Yes! He seemed to love to taste her as he groaned each time. It sent new sensations threw her body and she moaned loudly, not even trying to stifle it. His tongue slowly moved up to her swollen clit, and his tongue danced around it and he sucked it lightly. Hermione moaned loudly again, and she tangled her hands in his fair silvery hair, grinding against his practiced mouth, trying to create more friction. She hadn't realised that his hands had moved, until she felt one holding her waist down, and the other slip a finger inside her. He pumped in and out slowly, curling his finger every time he pushed into her. Soon he sped up, adding a second and third finger as her cries got more frequent and her breathing sped up. His tongue was still working wonders on her clit, and the combined feeling of both his fingers and mouth working in unison was making her to want more. With one last flick, she was pushed over the edge. She untangled one hand from his hair and bit on it hard so that she didn't scream with delight as she came. His fingers milked her orgasm, and he pulled his face back, moving up to kiss her as waves of ecstasy passed over her. He needed to be in her. She couldn’t wake up now. This time he would mentally take it further. So when they would meet in person that she would be putty in his irons._

_As she still tried to catch her breath she heard him quickly unbuckle his belt and he never lost eye contact with her. His mesmerizing warm silver eyes. This was it. This was what she wanted. This time she would not wake up. She carefully peeked at his length. She had never seen Edwards or any other so she did not know what to expect. With parted lips he looked at her with lust filled eyes._

_He teased her at first rubbing his length along her opening before slowly entering her, enjoying her gasps. This was a lot larger than his fingers, and it felt marvelous as he seemed to fit her perfectly as he glided along her inner walls._

_"Are you alright?" He asked her softly as she gazed into his silvery eyes that burned with unkempt desire._

_She wanted to feel him. He leaned over her and carefully glided further in. Bella threw her head back as she felt him filling her. She liked that feeling and they both groaned, satisfying the ache of desire. He moved out of her slowly, then back in again at a slightly faster pace, each time rubbing against one sweet spot on her inner walls, while roaming his hands over her partly covered breasts. Somehow his hands had found their way under her blouse and he was biting and teasing her breasts through the fabric of her blouse._

_Their lips met again with increasing passion, and she could feel it again when he nibbled her neck carefully marking her as his. He was thrusting at a quickened pace now and she found that she couldn’t help but meeting him thrust for thrust, trying to finally find relief._

_Her legs tensed as she dug her fingernails into his back and bit her lip hard trying to contain her screams but the heated built up in underbelly broke and pure hot pleasure rippled all over her body as she felt herself contracting around him and she moaned hotly in his ear. This in turn must've brought him over the edge as he began to groan too, his hips moving erratically until he stopped and he let out one very load groan and she felt something warm filling her as he was emptying himself into her._

_The last thing Bella heard as she slipped sated into oblivion, was his words: “You are mine.”_

* * *

Draco slowly came back to the present in his library. It had felt so good and rewarding, but still not as powerful as the real thing.

“That must have been some dream.” He heard a female voice coming from the door and jumped. “Hope it was about me.” He knew that voice and he did not like that pug faced Slytherin. Bella had worn a Slytherin tie in their shared dream and it had added to his desire.

He shook his head to clear it. “Don’t get your hopes up Pansy. You’ll never reach the class of this particular young woman.” he shot back.

What was she doing here anyway. Yes, she had been a good shag in Hogwarts once or twice, but he had no desire to tie the knots with her. 

“What are you doing here?” he asked her angrily for intruding in his privacy.

“Well, visiting your mother of course.” she told him eagerly. “I heard that your father is looking for a suitable bride for your family and at the moment we are only two available female pureblooded witches that are still available.” Pansy laughed as she stepped into the light.

“You are mistaken, there are more witches available and I will only marry one and no other. Father knows this and you should know too. So don’t get your hopes up Pansy because I’ll never marry you.” he shot back.

“We’ll see.” Pansy pouted turned and went out towards the exit.

* * *

Bella was in the plane sitting next to the window and stared outside. She had woken up quite sated from her dream, but the name Draco sounded quite familiar and yet she had no idea why. Could it be that her silver eyed Draco was the same chubby little boy she had seen in the crystal cave? Only the adult version? But then it had just been a dream.

“This was a strange visit.” Edward remarked causing Bella to let her musing go.

“Why do you say that?” she asked confused. 

“Because I couldn’t hear your mother’s thoughts and I was unable to enter your room at night.” Edward told her.

“But you could hear her thoughts before. What was different this time?” she asked him.

“I have no idea.” he answered truthfully. “Maybe it’s a gift, which she uses temporarily and has passed it on to you. I really don’t know.”

* * *

At the reservation the Pack was tugging in breakfast while discussing what Jacob had overheard from Charlie’s conversation.

“So Bella has premonitions?” Claire asked curiously.

“Apparently so.” Jacob answered with full mouth. “At least Renée didn’t sound surprised at his suggestion. It sounded more as if it was the most obvious thing.”

“Well, she is a danger magnet, so maybe the leeches need another one like her. Who knows what she would be capable if turned?” Embry suggested.

“What did they mean with warding a house?” Quil asked. “And what is the Macusa?”

“I think we should try to find out what they meant when they said, that Bella ‘has grown too powerful’” Sam nodded and carefully glanced towards Leia.

“Harry, should not have been able to survive his encounter with Victoria and yet thanks to Charlie he somehow did. It is only a matter of time before he wakes up from his coma.”

“But they are human. The smell human.” Paul stated.

“I believe they are” Sam agreed, “but like us they could be something more. What was the other name you mentioned?” he addressed Jacob again.

“Nimue. Actually I googled that name and found a lot of different stories, but all are connected with the tales of King Arthur and his knights, but none mentions the creation of Cold ones. And Nimue actually has a few names and some articles suggested that some myths have merged together. “

“Well, if the Swan’s have Celtic roots it would explain Bella’s complexion.” Claire stated.


	4. Chapter 4

Back in Forks:

Bella was sitting shivering on the familiar comfy couch in the Black household after her walk along the beach with Jacob. She had finally managed to evade the Cullens and had raced to her best friend. Every second had counted if she wanted to meet her friend again and she was really angry at her vampire family for not allowing her to meet with Jacob. Yes, it was dangerous. Yes, one of them could lose their countenance, but the same went for the vampires. Her exhaustion had temporarily been forgotten as her adrenaline was pumping through her veins again. If it wasn’t flowing through her body she was mentally and physically exhausted. It seemed that her active mind was already influencing her body. What she probably needed was some time away from it all. Some time away from the supernatural and all the problems it brought with it. Her visit to her mum had only reminded her of the dire choice she was about to make and in the back of her mind was a growing trepidation. She would miss her lovingly dear mother, her awkward father and her grand-parents living in Britain, which she hadn’t seen for some years now. She would lose her only true friend, although until last week’s short call it had seemed that she had already lost him. Her father had hugged her longer than usual and it had seemed that he had been extremely worried.

But the strangest thing, which had happened had been the Swan’s house resistance against Edward. He had only been able to get to the top porch step, but not further. It seemed that the house was not allowing him entry anymore. At least that’s how it had felt for him as he had explained it. He even had not been able to enter her room at night. Just like in Florida. But Why did it stop him now? Why not before? What had stopped him from entering? When she had cooked dinner in the evening, she had been surprised at her dad’s diligent cooking skills and wondered where he had acquired those in the three days she had been away. The way he had cut the onions, garlic and other vegetables seemed similar to those of normal chefs, but he had never shown any talent at cooking, besides house medicine created in a small cauldron. A new age hokus pokus he shared with her mother. But he had only used it once since she had lived with him.

Edward had reluctantly returned home when he had been unable to enter and she could have sworn that her father had had a triumphant smile on his face until he realized that she was looking at him. She had no idea what was going on, but something was fishy.

When they finally reached the parking lot of the school Edward had tried to persuade her to stay in the car, but as she had been able to spot Jacob standing out from the other pupils she had been able to deduce why her fiancé was so tense.

She had followed him to her former best friend who had looked rather dangerous with his long muscled body and his angry face which hardened when he spotted them coming towards him.

While Edward and Jacob had mentally and verbally been sparing she had unfortunately found out about the real reason why Edward had taken her to see her mother and when she heard about Emmet’s incident with Paul her breathing became ragged. Victoria had been here again and Edward was trying to protect her, but by lying to her. She had to agree with Jacob on this as she preferred to know the truth. The self assessment test, given to her by her mother had come back to her mind and she had to remind herself, again that both-Edward and Jacob- meant well. But it was wrong as they were deciding everything over her head.

Draco would never do this to her. She shook her head. Where had this thought come from? Draco was a fragment of her imagination. Was she so unhappy with her life, that she subconsciously created a better version of what she actually wanted or craved?

When Jacob had suggested coming to him if she wanted to have fun again she had almost climbed on his bike, but in order to not hurt her fiancé’s feelings, she had decided that she would visit Jake after school. No she felt that she needed to, but unfortunately her vampire family had prevented this again. Edward was withholding information and she would get it from him.

Thinking about the mentioned incident again she had remembered her vivid dream in the crystal cave. She needed to check with Jake how the entire incident had taken place as it almost seemed too much like a coincidence. It couldn’t be just another déjà-vu. 

As she had been going through the long week she had become more frustrated by the second as Edward and his family told her what “exactly” had happened, but a little traitorous voice in her head kept whispering that her fiancé was holding back the truth. She was scared for her family and urged the vampires to turn her, but her “fiancé” only responded with telling her with an angelic face that he would if she were married to him.

Emmet found the fact that Edward was unable to enter the house quite hilarious, but Carlisle frowned each time when it was mentioned and Bella had the sense that he had seen something similar before, but he withheld some information. Everyone was withholding information and she hated it.

But Bella couldn’t help it. She missed her boyfriend’s presence during the night and the abandonment nightmares got more frequent again. Each time she fell back into her slumber after such a dream Draco would be there for her in yet another steamy setting. How her mind conjured up these beautiful settings was beyond her. But the library remained still her favorite, though. Once or twice Draco had tried questioning her about her whereabouts with the promise to come to her for real, but heading her mother’s warning she withheld this information. And why would her mind question her about her whereabouts? It didn’t make sense. And what if he was real, … No. He was not real. Who had silver eyes anyway? And he was way to attentive to her needs during their ….Was she cheating on Edward by sleeping with another man in her dreams? No, but it spoke volumes about her frustration. 

During their long walk along the beach, Jacob had finished his version of the incident in more detail and they had shared more information about certain topics. She had even become more frustrated at hearing that wolves did not age when they were phasing and about imprinting and she had related some of the things she had learned about the vampires to Jacob. As she had started shivering despite Jakes warming presence he had suggested to get back to the house.

Thinking about the incident she felt that she could not keep it to herself any longer. Something was off and she felt safer within the Pack and, as much as she hated to admit it, she trusted them more lately as Jacob was still more willing to share information with her. He did not think her too frail to know the truth. She had groaned in frustration and kept silent for a few more minutes going over how she should tell them about her déjà-vus. Billy curiously put some hot cocoa in her hand as his son waited impatiently. She had kept too silent.

“I’m sorry.” Bella said leaning back. “I’m sorry for being such a klutz. I just don’t know what’s happening to me or if it’s happening to my because of my connections to the Cullens and the pack, but something is happening with me.”

“What do you mean?” Jacob asked her tensing and wondering what else she might tell him. She could see that Billy also was listening in as he rolled closer to the couch again.

“You know about my nightmares?” she asked them and both nodded. Of course Charlie shared everything with them. She scratched her head, but not because it itched.

“I keep having déjà-vues lately and I actually have seen the entire incident you described to me earlier in a dream. At that time I thought it was just another nightmare, but when I heard that there was an incident, it just sounded way to familiar and I needed confirmation.”

“You saw what happened?” Billy asked and Bella nodded but stopped as she suddenly felt something. She saw Billy and Jacob, but she could swear that she not only saw it, but could actually feel their presences. When she closed her eyes she could actually feel that there were several wilder presences surrounding the house, but as she concentrated further she realized that those wilder presences had a rational core. Her eyes shot open. The pack was outside!

“Ok. This may sound crazy, but I swear I can sense the pack outside.” Bella told them frowning and Billy’s eyebrows rose questiongly.

“They are.” Jacob exclaimed astonished. “Has the stupid leech bitten you?” Jake asked crouching closer to her and inspecting her hands but Bella shook her head.

“No, he didn’t, but they seem to have become more ‘protective’ over me. Hence I snuck away today” She omitted the part where she had promised the Volturi to become one of them.

“Or controlling” Jake shot back.

“Have you told the Cullen’s about these dreams?” Billy asked emphasizing the word dream and Bella shook her head again. She had no idea why she spoke with the Pack about it when she hadn’t the courage talking about it with her own family or the Cullens. What was wrong with her? But then she felt safer here and less out of place than with the vampire coven.

“No. Edward is a bit miffed anyway as the visit to mum didn’t turn exactly out as he wanted to. He couldn’t enter certain rooms and now our house is rejecting him.” she explained.

“Rejecting him?” Jacob clarified with a large happy grin and Bella nodded again although she wanted to smack him playfully as he was much too happy about it.

“Yeah. He can’t get further than the front porch and it looks as if he’d run into an invisible barrier. The first time he tried to enter, it looked almost as if he would be able to get in, but then something happened and he literally was ejected from the porch after a second.”

She could swear that she heard a deep rumbling sound outside which reminded her of giggling and she pictured the large wolves giggling outside and had to fight a grin. Especially as it had looked rather funny and Edward’s face had been priceless. Even Emmet had tried and failed and Carlisle had urged them to not try further. He had looked slightly scared. Why was anyone’s guess.

“I told you earlier that he can’t hear my thoughts.” Jacob nodded. “Well, turns out he couldn’t hear mum’s thoughts either any more. And when we returned the same thing happened with my dad.”

“But this gift works fine with other people.” Jacob enquired further and Bella nodded again.

“Yeah. It’s works fine, but now it stopped working with my parents.” Billy and Jacob locked eyes.

She still had to get to Angela as promised, but she somehow didn’t want to deal with all that Edward drama that was surely about to happen as soon as she drove over the treaty line again.

* * *

“Argh!” She hated aging potions. Not only did they make her look old with all that deep wrinkles, pigmentation marks and white long hair, but she also ached all over her body. In particular her back and she had trouble walking as fast and straight as she wanted to. She had considered Polyjuice potion, but that would only work until she reached Gringotts and would be forced out of her system at the entrance. It was a security measure the Goblins had come up with to protect their clients. With the aging potion she was still herself, only just as disguised. It was strange coming back to the magical world, she had grown up in and yet it hadn’t changed much. It seemed that the magical folk didn’t care much for progress. Or they simply didn’t need it. Diagon Alley had only changed a bit through Voldemort’s second short reign, but fortunately she had been away from it. As she passed Olivander’s she stopped shortly and thought about getting a wand for Bella but then again she could not just buy one from her. The old wand maker never had been able to provide a wand for them of his stock. All the wands in her family were custom made to fit their power level and only the wand maker knew this. Other wizarding families used the wands to be able to do magic at all. Their wands hindered them from doing too much powerful magic. But most of the time they were performing wandless magic. She lumbered on towards the white building at the end of the alley where she would get the bracelet her ancestor had been gifted with by her “sister” Morgause.

Just as she finally managed to climb the last step to enter the Wizarding bank she ran into someone tall and stumbled. She mumbled some apology and looked at the person she had ran into and mentally cursed.

“Watch where you are going.” the elder Malfoy snarled at her. It seemed that his manners had not improved in the slightest. This was how he treated people he thought himself above. Well, he would not recognize her so she decided to play some shannigan on him.

“Well, look who it is.” she mocked with her old raspy voice. “Well, Lucius Malfoy. Life has not been kind to you. You really haven’t aged well.” She knew that he was vain and had been able to tease him mercilessly during their years at Hogwarts and it seemed that this had not changed.

He froze and turned around to face her again with an angry expression. Renée wiggled her head and dramatically put her hands to her hips.

“Do I know you old hag?” the elder Malfoy scrutinized her now. But she was confident that he would not recognize her. “You do look familiar.”

Shoot. No he would not make the connection.

“Is that so?” she asked with her old raspy voice and acted shyly like a blushing younger woman as she tugged a strand of her white hair behind her ear and spotted revulsion ghosting over her former friends face as she was in her very old form thanks to the aging potion.

“It is.” he squinted his eyes, but was unfortunately not able to make the connection.

“Oh. Well.” she huffed. “I must have one of these faces. Next time young man I suggest you behave properly when you run into such a beautiful old lady like me.” She took one end of her scarf and tossed it over her shoulder again, turned and strutted towards one of the counters fighting her fit of laughter at the confused look of the elder blond Malfoy. She had way too much fun using the aging potion.

* * *

Malfoy Manor Dinner time.

Draco Malfoy joined his parents for dinner after he had met with his hired Auror, who to his dismay had not been as helpful as he had hoped. Apparently the name Swan as a last name was quite common and the different countries had upped their security which made it much harder using the different databases. Some of these were apparently connected, others were not. They hadn’t found any indication that she was living in Europe and hacking American databases was apparently more difficult and the Auror and his Muggle counterpart were flying to Russia to get hidden access to the American databases as they had been unable to get into the American system. Now they needed professional help and those hackers also traded information for money.

“Any good news?” his mother enquired hopefully but he knew that she already knew the answer through his gaze.

“Not, yet mother.” he informed her. “It seems that the Swan’s are much too intelligent to be found that easily.”

“It’s not surprising. Renée and Charles were one of the best students of Hogwarts.” his mother mused.

“Charles obsession with Muggle technology which rivaled even those of the Weasley clown was annoying.” his father huffed, but Draco saw that his mind seemed to be somewhere else.

“I wouldn’t call it an obsession.” his mother countered. “More a professional interest and we should not forget that those two came up with the best retaliation plans against the Marauders.”

Lucius grinned clearly amused with the memory. “The aging potion was a stroke of genious…” he trailed of and froze wide eyed.

“Lucius?” his wife asked him clearly worried as his spoon fell out of his hand.

“It was Renée.” he muttered. “She was here.”

Both Narcissa and Draco straightened their backs in interest.

“You saw Renée. Bella’s mother?” enquired tremulous.

“Where?” Draco couldn’t contain his excitement. Maybe Bella was closer than they knew.

“In Gringotts.” he told them. “But she didn’t look like Renée but still familiar.”

“How did she look?” Narcissa enquired knowing full well that she couldn’t have worn a Polyjuice potion.

“Old. Very old.” Lucius remarked and put his flat right hand on his front. “I ran into an old hag at the entrance of Gringotts and hissed at her to watch where she was going and she berated me for my bad behavior. When I remarked at her looking familiar she did the most curious thing.” Lucius shook his head in embarrassment. Their former friend had made fun at his expense.

“She must have used an aging potion. I just couldn’t get that encounter out of my head. Now I know why.”

“What did she do to make you blush like that?” Narcissa asked her embarrassed husband and it annoyed Draco.

“If Bella’s mother is here, then they need to stay somewhere. Where did the Swans live?” he asked excited, but unfortunately they shook their heads.

“We don’t know. Their properties do not show up in the Ministry’s records because their houses are much older than Hogwarts or the Ministry itself.” Lucius told him. The records had been his first try to find the Swan family and nobody had been at Renée’s family home or even Charlie’s. Those two families had been very secretive and he remembered that they hadn’t been very happy at the prospect of Renée and Charlie marrying, but hadn’t stopped them.

Draco jumped up. He needed to inform his Auror of the possibility of Bella’s mother being in Britain. She had to leave a trace somewhere.


	5. Chapter 5

Somewhere in Wales

Renée had made it home to her ancestral home and had surprised her old mother. Her home wasn’t what everyone would suspect. It wasn’t a manor as many in the Wizarding world suspected, but a shining white castle with some treasure underground, ancestral tombs and sealed tombs of some former dark warlocks. Segel being one of them. Not far from it was the large mythical forest her family was protecting. A forest, where her ancestor had enclosed ,supposedly enclosed, her former husband’s ancestor in a tree. She knew her family had always felt a draw to the dark side but luckily they had managed to stay and serve the light side of the old religion.

“Are you sure that these are the creations Nimue created?” her mother asked emerging from yet another shelf with further old leather books and several parchment rolls.

“I’m sure of it. They are not alive. Charlie actually was able to trace their death certificates and some old pictures. They look identical to those old pictures; they never eat and move around quite a bit. When I used the wards to block inanimate things from Bella’s room they couldn’t enter. Charlie repeated the same procedure and none of them is able to enter the house now. We unfortunately do not know if they sparkle in the sun, but I assume they do.”

“That’s still not enough to distinguish them from normal vampires.” her mother told her opening the old books.

“That’s not the worst, mother.” Renée sighed. “Bella is completely dependent on that leech. She tried to reassure me that she isn’t codependent, but you know how bad a liar she is.” her mother nodded with the hint of a smile.

“I could see that the intervention sheet shocked her, but she is still defending him. I don’t know how to separate them before it is too late.”

“So you are giving up and are researching veelas instead?” her mother enquired sneaking a look at the books her daughter had scattered on the table.

“No, Bella is having dreams about Draco Malfoy. And with dreams, I mean naughty dreams and if he finds out her whereabouts through them, then everything we have done so far to protect our daughter would have been in vain. No matter where we turn, there seems to be another monster lurking in the shadows. How can I block Bella’s vela bond and protect her from the leeches nobody seems to know anything about.”

“As much as I hate to admit it, maybe the only way to protect Bella from getting turned into a Cold one is to get her under the Veela’s protection.” her mother suggested and was answered with her daughter’s furious gaze.

“No, I don’t want my daughter to be trapped by a Death Eater family because nobody in the Wizarding world changes that bloody law. You do remember that she automatically has to live with her male veela counterpart until the process is complete. The Wizengamot doesn’t even want to hear that a male veela doesn’t die if it doesn’t get its mate. She would lose her free will because her bond forces her to return the feelings. We are already fighting against our inner dark side. How hard will it be for any potential offspring between Bella and Draco?” Renée ranted. Her mother patted her shoulder to calm her down.

“She is graduating soon. Isn’t she?” the elder woman asked. “The Cold ones can’t find her here and she needs to learn how to control her powers.”

“But all the magic made her condition worse after the Malfoy brat bit her.” Renée argued. “You know I would have loved to hide her here, but it would have killed her.”

“That’s because she was still so young and her magic was still growing. She had to adjust to the magic here and the magic forcing the bond on her. Her body wasn’t developed enough then, but it could be now.”

“Are you sure?” Renée asked clearly doubting her mother’s assessment.

“Of course not.” she smiled “Bella’s power is unprecedented. We warned you about uniting our lines, but you and Charlie just were too enamored with each other and would have found a way to be together anyway.”

Renée chuckled knowingly. She missed being with her ex-husband and as he had apparently not tied the knot with anyone else it seemed that the feeling was mutual.

“You know. You could make a “family” holiday here. The walls are certainly thick enough.” her mother grinningly insinuated to a heavily blushing Renée. “Mother!” she called scandalized but her mother only threw her hands in the air while laughing. She was clearly enjoying the company.

“Alright. You browse through the Veela books and I through these one about Nimue. Hopefully Geoffrey wrote everything about her down as diligently as he did with the tales of Arthur.”

* * *

_Lying on her side, with her head on Dracos pale shoulder, she stretched in the fine cool white tousled linen. He had sated her lust for him expertly and she had enjoyed every heartbeat of it. The way he trailed kisses down her body while praising her hoarsely. The way he was feeling inside her and the way he groaned his release were and the kisses he shared with her were mindlessly erotic. It was too bad that he was just in her imagination. She cuddled closer to his lean warm body again and felt his hand tightening around her waist again, pulling her closer to him. She liked his afterglow scent. As she was not on any contraceptives she knew that if this were the real world that he would be genetically a good match, but unfortunately he was only a dream. Her favorite dreams seemed to last longer every time, but she enjoyed them immensely. They were her escape from all the ever growing problems she had in the real world: Vampires, Volturi, Victoria, Wolves, pending marriage, potential loss of friends and family._

_“You have no idea how beautiful you are.” he said brushing his lower body against her again and brushing an escaped lock from her face. Smiling, she looked towards his grey-silver eyes and they seemed to shine looking at her. Edward’s never shown like that. She could get lost in those eyes. He tenderly kissed her front and ran his hand down her back. Great I’m falling for my own fantasy._

_“Why don’t you believe me?” he enquired. “You are beautiful.”_

_“Because as much as I love these dreams, you are unfortunately not real.” Bella answered. “As soon as I wake up I’ll have to deal with reality again.”_

_He suddenly turned and rolled partially on her trapping her underneath him. He tilted his head and kissed her tenderly. Bella couldn’t help and kiss him back. His kiss sent shivers down her entire body until they broke apart breathlessly._

_“I’m not a dream, love.” he rumbled stealing another kiss from her. “Tell me about your reality and then I will prove it to. Maybe I can help you with your problems that you love to escape. Right into my arms. Not that I’m complaining about the last part.”_

_She remembered her mother’s warning about keeping her whereabouts to herself, but maybe her mind gave her the chance to reflect on her problems and maybe she could find a solution._

_“Alright, but you need to get off me or I won’t be able to think straight.” she relented and he chuckled stealing another kiss and moved to lie besides her, with his head propped up._

_“Basically, my dilemma is that my best friend is a werewolf and my boyfriend or rather fiancé is a Cold one.” She swore that Draco’s eyes were darkening at her mentioning that she had a boyfriend._

_“Werewolves are dangerous, Bella.” he said his face betraying his worry._

_“Jake is not a werewolf in the traditional sense. He doesn’t need to be bitten to become one. He was born with the gene. So he is technically a shapeshifter.” she answered and saw that he calmed down somewhat._

_“What’s a Cold one?” he enquired remembering the second part of information._

_“He is a Vampire.” she answered and saw Draco’s eyes grow wide and he sat up abruptly. “Bella, you need to tell me where you are!” he begged taking her hand. “You’re in danger.”_

_“I’m not, yet.” she answered. “The pack and Edward’s family are mortal enemies and both are protecting me from Victoria, another Cold one, who is after me, because Edward killed her mate.” Bella shuddered and turned her arm revealing her now visible scar. Draco’s hands shot out and grabbed her arm. He took it in, traced a finger over it and locked his worried gaze with her again._

_“You need to tell me where you are, love.” he begged again with now slightly wavering voice._

_“Mum, forbid me to tell you. Draco.” she answered him and you are just a fragment of my mind._

_“Bella, I’m not. I can help. Tell me where you are.”_

_“I promised mum to not tell you and I don’t break promises.” Bella answered him stubbornly and Draco groaned._

_“And even if you could help with Victoria, which I doubt. You wouldn’t be able to help against the Volturi.” she answered him._

_“Who in Merlin’s name are the Volturi?” he cursed and surprised Bella as her mother used that curse too sometimes._

_“They are basically Royalty of the Cold ones. Their only and most pressing law is to prevent the knowledge about their species getting out in the world. When I saved Edward from getting himself killed some month ago, they made me promise to become one of them within time, but Edward only wants to turn me after I’ve married him and if he turns me then he breaks the pact his family has with the wolves and then the entire armistice between them is over and they would kill each other. I don’t want either of them to die because of me, but if I’m not changed soon then the Volturi might kill my family and the Pack protecting me and their entire tribe and there is also still the danger of Victoria.” she explained._

_“That’s some real big danger you’re in.” Draco remarked taking all the information in and also cursed his Defence against the dark arts education. He had not known about Cold ones and his mate was in the middle of it. He had to get her out of there, but she remained stubborn. Maybe he could at least get her help until he was able to figure out where she was staying._

_“And as you don’t want to tell me where you are living I just have to guess from your accent that you are staying somewhere in America. Am I right?” he asked hoping that he had narrowed his search.”_

_“I’m not telling you.” she remarked stubbornly holding his hand which he did not let go and sitting up._

_“I gathered that love, but I know someone, who can help you.” he told her._

_“Really?!” Bella questioned him with a doubting look._

_“Yes, in New York is the Woolworth Building, 233 Broadway, which is until this day the seat of the MACUSA. Go to the entrance, but don’t go through the rotating entrance door. That’s for muggles. Take the door on the left side of the rotating door and state your name and ask for the Auror’s office. In particular for an Auror called Perceval Graves. Please he can help you.”_

_“What’s MACUSA? Muggles? Auror?” she enquired wondering what else her mind might conjure up._

_“MACUSA is the acronym for Magical Congress of the United States of America. Muggles or No-majs as they call them are non magical people, meaning they can’t do magic. And Auror’s are if I remember correctly are the wizarding version of police men.” he answered her._

_“I’m going crazy.” Bella murmured to herself but was interrupted by the blond young man. “You know that Cold ones and werevolves exist and yet you refuse to believe in the existence of witches, wizards and warlocks? I know that both your parents Renée and Charlie are and I know that you are too.”_

_“Well, they are practicing new age stuff.” Bella murmured more to herself, but Draco mentally cheered. Maybe he was getting through to her and he planned on using the newfound information to find her. He was a Slytherin after all and used to use every information for his benefit._

_“And, I can further prove that I’m not only in your mind as I know that your mother Renée is currently in Britain. Did you know that?”_

* * *


	6. Chapter 6

After coming home completely soaked and dirty Bella was now relaxing in her room and she had to admit, that whatever was keeping Edward or any other of the Cullen’s out felt safe. Edward had always intruded her privacy for coming to her in secret after she had supposedly gone to bed and Alice had silently replaced a large amount of her casual clothes with more fashionable ones without her consent. The Cullens had also tried to convince her father to let her spend two nights with Alice, supposedly having a slumber party. Normally Charlie appeared to have liked Esme or Alice, but this time he had not been able to be swayed by their sweet talking. His argument had been that she was still experiencing nightly tremors and that he would not let her sleep somewhere else until they were gone. Yet she was allowed to spend some time with them during the day, but she could have sworn that although she was still experiencing nightmares, they had lessened significantly because she was getting better at diverting her mind to her secret blond Draco.

Her mind was truly wonderful creating him, but she could not explain how she had been able to know that her mother was in London. She had never mentioned that she would visit grandma soon as the tickets were quite expensive. She had tried to call Renée, but had not been able to reach her. When she had casually mentioned it. Charlie had dropped a plate and astonishingly being able to pick it up before it could hit the bottom. To her it had looked as if it had slowed down during the fall and had stopped hovering above the ground. But that was not the only strange thing. She seemed to be more aware of her surroundings or she just became mad. On her way to school she could have sworn that she had seen a large bird, looking similarly like a hawk, yet with two sets of wings and long antennas as tails. And she had also seen green twigs waving at her and two black ravens were following her every step. 

But it didn’t make sense. She was imagining things, but then the Cullen’s could not enter her father’s house anymore. She carefully stood up and stepped towards her mirror. According to Alice her appearance was slowly changing “for the better”. She contributed it to her care, but Bella wasn’t so sure about it. Her hair had become longer, fuller and curlier as she had not bothered to cut it, softer and darker. Alice had even enquired if she had dyed her hair darker, but she had not. Her chocolate-brown eyes seemed to change into a more greenish color with each passing day. At first it had looked as if the irises of her eyes lost color, but then she had realized that it became more greenish with time. As she looked at the young woman in the mirror she had to admit, that she did not look that bad. A little bit pale, but not that bad. But maybe it was because her mind had constantly told her through Draco that she was beautiful. Like a repeated mantra.

When she lay back on her bed, she cast her mind back to the story Rosalie had shared with her in the Cullen’s home. It sounded so much like a fairy tale that she had found Emmet after everything she had endured, but she had seen it in her eyes that she had spoken the truth. Bella didn’t know how she did it, but while Rosalie had told her what has happened to her Bella had been able to picture it in her mind quite vividly. Even when the other woman had described her ordeal Bella had faintly been able to feel it. She knew what Rosalie had been trying to accomplish by telling her story and even though she did not want to admit it, it had worked. On the one hand she loved Edward dearly and wanted to spend eternity with him, but on the other hand she hated his overprotecting nature and that the Cullen’s tried to decide everything about her life. Had Charlie let her stay at Alice’s sleepover then she would be held prisoner by them in order to prevent her to get to La Push. But thanks to her best friend, who had surprisingly “saved” her from school, she had been able to spend the entire day in La Push again.

It had felt so exhilarating riding those bikes through the mud again. The only problem, that had arisen during her visit, when they had turned towards the delicate topic of turning again. When Jacob had almost exploded in his anger the most curious thing had happened. He had been pushed back through an invisible force and Bella remembered that she had shortly felt quite faint for a second. But in her anger and confusion she had taken the bike back into the rain and ridden it towards the Cullen’s house. Changed her mind and ridden home without getting caught by her father or the Cullen’s. When she had arrived entirely cold and soaked and dirty she had fled under the shower and tried to calm her mind. Alice had appeared shortly after she had come home, but she had not answered the door. The bike was hidden behind the house now. But what had Jacob pushed back from her? Had she done that? If yes, was it the reason why she felt so emotionally and physically drained.

She heard Charlie’s station wagon pull up next to the house and a few seconds later she felt something shift in the air, but she could not explain it. It had felt as if she was aware of her father entering the door, but how?

Then there was shattering and her father’s cursing:” Merlin! What the hell happened here?” A few heartbeats she could not hear anything until she could here her father’s heavy footsteps coming up the stairs.

He knocked and asked concerned:” Bella? Are you in there? Is everything alright?”

“I’m fine, dad.” She responded hoping to sound convincing, but he apparently didn’t believe it.

“Can I come in?” he asked, and Bella sighed. “Sure.”

When he entered he had one of his worried looks on his face. “I don’t need to be your mother to see that something is bothering you and judging from the mess downstairs, I know that I’m right.

Bella frowned. She had not left any mess downstairs.

“What mess, dad?” she enquired sitting up and her dad sighed this time. “The mess downstairs that looks as if a hurricane just went straight through our house.”

Not believing anything he said, Bella stood up, swayed slightly and walked past him and downstairs and stopped in her tracks. He hadn’t exaggerated. The entire house was a mess of moved and shredded furniture, torn towels, blankets, feathers swirling in the air, pantry among the debris. Her father had not exaggerated. It looked as if a hurricane had torn through their house. 

“I swear, I didn’t do that.” Bella murmured to her father behind her but he surprised her.

“Probably not voluntarily.” He chuckled. “But something like that can happen if you are in emotional turmoil.”

He sighed. “I believe it’s time we let the cat out of the bag. Watch closely. And please. Don’t freak out.” Charlie turned his hands outwards and murmured something in a strange language. Bella took a step back and saw that her father’s eyes were momentarily glowing gold. Suddenly, she felt another shift and the entire mess was miraculously flying to its proper place, and all the torn things were repairing themselves until no speck of dust could be spotted. Was her parents New Age Religion more than it seemed? It couldn’t be. 

She slowly took a step towards her father and poked him twice in his stomach. Was this really her father. He jumped back in surprise complaining. “Oye.” 

“This is real, isn’t it?” Bella asked stumped.

“Yes, it is.” He confirmed. “Perhaps we should sit down.” He suggested gesturing towards their sofa and Bella automatically went towards it. Talking would certainly be good now.

As she sat down the cushy sofa Charlie sat down opposite her in his armchair and remained silent. It seemed that he waited for her to begin this conversation. Maybe something was wrong with her and that’s why Edward had not been able to hear her thoughts.

“Is something wrong with me?” she enquired with wavering voice.

Charlie shook his head laughing. Bella had just seen him doing magic and she wandered if there was something wrong with her? Maybe she came after his line after all.

“No, there is nothing wrong with you, Bella. You are special. “

Bella doubted it. It sounded more like there was something wrong with her and her father just wanted to avoid the definition of her being a freak.

“We actually wanted to wait to explain everything until Renée returned from Britain, but it seems that we need to come clean now.” He sighed again.

“About what? Speaking of Britain. Why is Mum there? Is Grandma sick?” Bella shot back her heartbeat accelerating.

Charly shook his head. “No, your grandmother is not ill, and Renée is there to get you a family heirloom which will help you to learn how to control your powers.”

“My powers?” Bella enquired hesitantly. “What powers? So, I’m not normal, right?”

“Nobody is normal. Normal is what people define as normal.” Charlie answered, and Bella rolled her eyes. That was not what she had meant with normal.

“You remember all the stories, we told you when you were younger? About Merlin, Morgana, Morgose, Nimue, King Uther and his son Arthur?” he enquired, and Bella nodded. Her parents seemed have an unhealthy obsession with all those legends.

“Faintly. But I remember some stories, which you must have made up as I have not found any references to them for school.” She answered and Charlie shook his head.

“We haven’t made them up, Bella.” Charlie answered. “Our family holds many secrets and although many stories about King Arthur have become legend there is a true core to it. In fact our origins can be traced back to the legendary court of King Arthur.” 

“You can’t take anything about that seriously. I mean many nobles families during the middle ages and the renaissance supposedly traced their ancestry back to a character of an epic story. This was done to prove their legitimacy to their throne or other ways of power and there has not been any prove that this court existed. It’s a myth.

Her father proudly beamed at her. “That’s true. You have learned history well. But in some cases, it can be proven and the history we have from that time is written by victors.”

“You are not making any sense.” Bella remarked processing what her father just told her.

“I’m not good at explaining things.” He wrung his hands. “Ok. Let’s try this. You do not just have nightmares. Sometimes during the day, you feel like you have some sort of déjà-vu and you remember that you have dreamt about it.”

Bella nodded hesitantly. Yes. The déjà-vus certainly became more frequent. “This gift comes from your mother’s side”

“Now you call it a gift?” Bella perked up. “Like a supernatural gift?”

“Yes.” Charlie confirmed. “But, you have to promise me that you can’t tell anyone!” he urged. “Neither your favorite vampire clan, nor the protectors of these woods.”

“You knew that the Cullen’s were Cold ones?” Bella enquired with eyes wide open and frowned at her father’s growing grin. “I suspected it, but thanks for your confirmation.”

“Shit.” Bella cursed and half expected to be reprimanded by her father, but was surprised that he only threw her a reprimanding look without acknowledging it.

“The gift of foresight comes from your mother’s family, but the base of our powers is magic. I’m a warlock and your mother’s a witch. Which means that you are too.”

Bella frowned. She was a witch? She couldn’t believe it. Was this the reason why Edward couldn’t hear her thoughts?

“That’s ridiculous, I’m not a witch.” Bella remarked shaking her head violently and spotted her father fuddling nervously with his hands.

“God, I wish. Renée were here.” He scratched the back of his head and stopped. He turned towards the fireplace and contemplated something. “Hold on. I will prove it.”

With that he jumped up from his seat and with two steps he went towards the fireplace and searched for something inside it with his left hand until he found it and pulled out a small ceramic pot. “Floo powder.” He remarked while Bella watched intently. She observed him taking a bit of it in his hands and tossing it into the fireplace while shouting: “Caerleon”

Bella jumped back as large green and blue flames erupted in the fireplace, which until this evening she had believed to only be a decorative one. She jerked backwards when she could hear her mother’s worried voice come through the firewall in the fireplace. “Charlie, has something happened with Bella?”

He answered: “Yeah, we have some explaining to do. Could you come through?”

* * *

Esme stepped into her husband’s study. She had gradually observed him getting more worried. What was the cause of his unrest? The raising death toll in Seattle? The Volturi? Another Clan? The wolves? Something was bothering him, and she would not let him shut her out of his thoughts again.

“Carlisle?” she asked attentively knowing full well that he had heard her entering.

“What is it my love?” he answered frowning and looking up from one of his old books.

“I don’t need to be Edward to see that there is something bothering you. And the other members of the family are also getting restless. What is bothering you?”

“Bella.” He answered. She had not expected this answer. Bella would soon be a part of their family and although she had not yet consented to be Edward’s wife. Alice had already planned huge parts of the wedding.

“Why?” she enquired. “I don’t understand. Have the Volturi contacted you because of her?”

“No, but you know that none of us can’t enter the Swan residency any longer and none of our gifts work on the swans any longer.” He answered, and Esme nodded.

“I have seen something similar shortly after I was turned and I’m afraid of what Bella could be.

“What have you seen?” Esme enquired growing worried.

“Beings powerful enough to endanger our kind. They were rounding us up and killing us. I was lucky to get away. The Volturi were able to turn the tide against them, but they are dangerous.”

“Are you talking about werewolves?” she asked stoking his hair, but he shook his head.

“No, something far deadlier.” His voice trembled slightly. “We can only hope that she is not aware of it yet if she is indeed what I believe her to be.”


	7. Chapter 7

Bella could not believe it. She must have lost her mind. A second ago, she saw the fireplace come alive with green flames and her mother stepped out as if it was the most normal thing to use this means of transport. Was she dreaming? She pinched herself. Nope. It seemed not, but on the other hand her dreams were quite vivid lately. Renée was standing right next to her and she could even smell her specific perfume, but she still tried to comprehend it all. She carefully extended her hand and carefully poked her mother twice, who seemed to have expected that and only grinned at her expectantly.

“Convinced, that it’s me?” she asked looking strangely at her. Bella nodded frowning and sat down and took a deep breath. “I see, but I still don’t believe it.” She murmured.

“So, I’m not crazy?” she asked and saw both her parents shake their heads. “No, you’re not.”

“That means I’m really a witch?” she asked. “Is that why most gifts don’t work on me?”

“Yes, you’re a witch, Bella.” Renée answered smiling while sitting down on the couch next to her.” And I know you probably have many questions and you can ask them now. No more secrets.” 

“What do you mean that most gifts don’t work on you?” Charlie asked frowning ever being the Chief of Police. “Did you mean that the Cullen’s gifts don’t work on you?”

Renée glowered and asked:” What the hell did I miss? I was only gone a few days.” 

“Not, much. Bella just confirmed that the Cullen’s are Cold Ones a few minutes ago.” Charlie answered smugly.

“Yeah, because you tricked me.” Bella complained. “So, the New Age and Wicca stuff that you were doing is not what I thought it was, right.”

Renée and Charlie shared a chuckle and shook their heads. “No, we are not believers of that stuff, because the Muggle versions are very far from the real Magic, but it served us well masking what we were really doing.” Her mother answered.

“Bella, you have to understand, that we did not grow up in the Muggle world.”

“Muggle?” Bella cut in with accelerating heartbeat. Draco had used that term too. Did that mean that he was indeed real? Was he a wizard? Then how and why was he communicating with her?

“Oh, right.” Renée reminded herself. “We call people without magic Muggles, here in America they are called No-majs.” She clarified with a dismissive gesture.

“Anyway, Charlie and I grew up in the Wizarding world, which is kept apart the Muggle one, but after having Muggle Studies, we both decided that we would also write exams in the Muggle one, so that we would have a chance in living both. At that time, we didn’t know for real that we would need it in the future.” Charlie raised his eyebrow when he realized that Renée had slipped back into her Welsh accent.

“Muggle studies?” Bella enquired “is the magical world so different from the real world?”

“It is.” Charlie confirmed snickering stroking his chin. “But both are real worlds. They are just existing separately.”

“Ok.” Bella murmured verily. “So, when did your gifts, powers, magic, how should I say this, manifest?” she asked. “How old were you? I mean, you said “Muggle Studies”. That implies that you were much younger than I was?”

“Just say magic.” Renée answered stroking Bella’s hair soothingly. “We are all born with magic and usually grow up with it.”

“Than why didn’t I too?” Bella interrupted. “I saw what mess I created earlier, does my magic protect me against the powers of the Cold ones, why didn’t it protect me against James, why does it not protect me against Victoria? Why is my magic manifesting now? Why not earlier?” Bella was talking herself in a frenzy and shrieked as the wooden sofa table cracked and split in two.

“Ok, Bella relax. Take a deep breath.” Renée told her grabbing her shoulders calmly. Bella did that but wanted answers.

“Good, that’s fine. Keep breathing.” Renée told her and after a few minutes she let go of her. “You were born with magic, Bella.” She sighed. “Powerful magic, and we … we had to protect you.” She said brushing her hand through her hair. “So, we fled and bound your magic until you would be of age.”

“Bound my magic?” Bella repeated. “Protect me of whom?” wanted to know. _Please don’t say Draco._

“The Wizarding World.” Her father answered locking eyes with his ex-wife and Bella had no idea how to respond to that.

“But why? Could you please elaborate on that?” she said. “It still doesn’t make any sense.”

“Bella, the Wizarding world has many perks, but it’s still centuries behind the Muggle World” Renée elaborated. “Around the time of your birth, things were even more dangerous, because of a dark Wizard called Voldemort and he had very radical followers who thrived on violence and power. They were convinced that only pureblooded wizards were worth something.”

“Like wizarding Nazis?” Bella asked, and Charlie nodded. “Yeah, that’s actually a good comparison.”

“So, what’s that got to do with us?” she asked still not quite understanding.

“I was getting to that.” Renée admonished her. “He was also collecting powerful beings and he has tried to recruit Charlie and me, because we come from very powerful magical lines, but we declined.”

“So, that’s why you had to flee? Would he have killed you?” Bella shuddered, and Renée was smiling sardonically. “He would certainly have tried, but at that time I was carrying you and he would probably have loved to get his hands on you to train you in the dark arts to do his bidding. That would have been terrible.” Renée shuddered throwing her ex-husband a sour look.

Bella gulped. There was no way that she was that powerful, but then her parents seemed genuine. “Is he still out there?” Bella asked more to herself, but her mother responded when she saw that Charlie shrugged his shoulders to indicate that he didn’t know.

“No, he was finally defeated a year ago. He is finally gone, but the Wizarding World still hasn’t changed much and I would not recommend going back.”

“But, I’m graduating soon.” Bella said. “And, Dad said earlier that when I get emotional my magic slips. So, I need to learn how to control it right? Can I learn it here without us going back?” _Maybe I can learn a few tricks and use it against Victoria._ _Buffle the Cullens a bit._

Renée and Charlie shared a long look and Bella shifted uncomfortably. Their gaze was intense. So, she had not been imagining things when her mother had visited a few times. There still seemed to be a spark between them.

“Actually, we have been thinking about it for a while now.” Her mother began and stopped shifting her gaze towards Charlie again, who had risen his eyebrow and Bella could see that he was just as confused as her.

“No, you haven’t” Bella stated amused and her mother turned towards her again surprised that her daughter was apparently not taking it as hard as she had imagined it to be.

“Alright.” She concurred. “I wasn’t talking about Charlie and me, I talked with your grandmother about your future and she called in some favors after she has heard that you were accepted into the University of Alaska. She expected at least one Ivy League University.”

Bella snorted amused. “Mum, I’m not bad at school, alright, but certainly nowhere near Ivy League material.” 

“That’s because you don’t believe in yourself. You could do it. I know it.” Her father cut in.

“You’re delusional.” Bella scoffed crossing her arms and shaking her head.

“Maybe.” Renée shrugged her shoulders. “But we still believe in you and your grandma had a marvelous idea how you could learn to control your powers, and still get a normal muggle education.”

That sounded so different from her planned out life concept. She would not be able to become a vampire and cut ties with her family. She wavered. Would she keep her magical powers after turning? How should she be able to learn to control her powers and keep the Volturi satisfied? She had promised to become one of them.

* * *

Bella was in her room again in front of her computer, contemplating about the load of information she had received today. Her grandmother wanted to train her in magic during her “gap year” in Britain. She had magic. It was still hard to grasp, but some things were now beginning to make sense. But she still had no idea how to resolve her dilemma with the Cullens or Victoria. She had omitted telling them about the danger they were in. But she had no idea why and she felt that her parents had also omitted something or tried to evade the topic of Draco. She had even asked them if they believed that Draco could be real and her parents had shared a strange look until Renée had answered carefully:”Bella, honey. The wizarding world is very confusing and powerful beings are often seen as trophies by some ahm… magical creatures. The way you are describing him it is possible that he is a ... “ “Succubus” her father had cut in helping her mother out who had nodded in agreement.

“A what?” she had asked, and her father had informed her. “A succubus, who is drawn to your power.”

“That’s why I told you to disclose your location to him.” Her mother had told her uneasily.

Bella was now curiously browsing through all different websites to find out information on incubi and became even more worried by the second. Were her parents right and Draco was real, but an incubus? He couldn’t be. Or was he. She browsed through the checklists of symptoms that all the indicators for incubi where and had to disagree. She had never experienced sleep paralysis or hypnagogia of which typical examples included a feeling of being crushed or suffocated, electric "tingles" or "vibrations" combined with imagined speech and other noises, the imagined presence of a visible or invisible entity, and sometimes intense emotions of fear or euphoria. Orgasmic feelings were the only thing she had felt from the listed things. It had all been in her dream and yet she somehow felt that Draco, if he was real had been honest with her.

And she did not remember Draco as a shadowy creature, but as detailed as if he was sitting next to her. But her parents had already warned her of using “muggle” sources for supernatural phenomenon and Renée had promised to bring her some books on magic for her to read but she had curiously. Yet on the other hand it had served her well for the Cullens.

She sighed. But on the other hand, what if her parents were right about him and he was an incubus. She had no desire to being knocked up by one and carrying a changeling which would drain her life energy.

But Draco had insisted that he was a wizard. She knew that she should finally go to bed or call Jacob as both of her parents insisted, but she knew that she would not be able to sleep. Her mind wandered as she imagined that Draco would be naughty with her in here, in this very room. The bed wasn’t as large as those in their shared dreams, but it would certainly increase the passion. She shook her head. _Bella focus._

Since Draco had started to appear in their dreams, which had gradually become longer and more intense, her terrifying nightmares had lessened, and she became more at odds with Edward and the Cullens. She still loved them of course, but something had changed in the dynamics.

One webpage had raised her interest as it used the Acronym ASUCAM and its information deviated from the Muggle information. It looked like it had not changed the layout since the nineties, but the Webmaster listed was one P. Graves (Hadn’t Draco talked to her about a person with a similar name. Graves), who apparently was “proud to be named after his grandfather”, who had lost his life due to a person called Grindelwald. _Holy shit. Why does this name sound so familiar?_ Bella murmured to herself continuing browsing through the webpage.

ACUSAM, whatever that Acronym stood for had apparently been founded in 1693, after the Witch Trials in Salem. It looked partially like a blog and partially like something a nutcase wicca and new age follower or someone with schizophrenia would come up with, but there was to much information which seemed too accurate. Maybe that was the point to deter rational Muggles. She clicked on the “Master list of magical beasts” which was divided between harmful, useful and protected and her breath hitched. There was mentioning of a wolf shape shifter tribe that was under the protection of the ASUCAM, but not where this tribe was located but again, the information was just too accurate.

 _‘[…]the transformation of the shape shifters into the wolf form will only take place if the tribe is severely threatened by their mortal enemies the ‘impavidi’_ (=latin for cold blood) _.’_

Did the tribe know that they were under protection from the ASUCAM or that there was obviously someone else who knew their secret? Now she would really need to call Jacob. Even though she didn’t want to.

Her screen mouse edged to the listed contact of P. Graves and contemplated if she should write a mail to him or her. She had not found any other reference to _impavidi_ and wondered if those were cold ones. Should she write this person? Would she endanger the Cullen’s if she did that? Would this person come here? Maybe he just was a nutcase, or he could be someone who knew how to handle her Victoria problem. Her parents had admitted that they had no real idea how to handle Cold Ones. Bella hesitated and then called up a free European mailservice using a VPN. She had once created an email address in computer science in Phoenix High for occasions like this and hoped that it had not been deleted due to inactivity.

No. She took a relieved breath as the log in process worked. She stopped shortly to think about how to phrase it and how much information she should provide.

_To:_ [ _P.Graves@acusam.gv.com_ ](mailto:P.Graves@acusam.gv.com)

_From:_ [ _xenawarriorprinces69@gmx.com_ ](mailto:xenawarriorprinces69@gmx.com)

_Subject: Impavidi_

_Dear P. Graves,_

_I’m writing to you for more information about a specific term in one of your articles on your webpage. You mentioned the term impavidi in connection with a tribe of shape shifters and described them as their mortal enemies. Although your webpage is extraordinarily informative on magical beasts and creatures, I was unable to find any other reference on impavidi. Therefore, I just wanted to enquire if the Impavidi could also be appearing under another name: Cold Ones._

_As I said earlier, I was unable to find any other reference and can therefore not clarify if the impavidi are the same species. But it is possible that they are if they share these characteristics, which I will list below._

**_Species_ ** _: They are immortal beings who feed and survive on the blood of humans or animals._

**_Appearance_ ** _:_

  * _All Cold ones have refined and perfected physical features (including their scent and voice), allowing them to lure in prey._
  * _Their skin is pale, almost ethereally pale, beautiful, flawless and textured with a marble-like substance much harder and stronger than granite. Due to the crystalline properties of their cells._
  * _When a Cold One is exposed to sunlight, their body will sparkle like diamonds._
  * _They have either red or bronze eyes, depending on their diet: Red for human blood and bronze for ‘animal’ blood._
  * _Cold One’s teeth appear no different than regular human teeth. They do not possess fangs, but teeth that are unbreakable, and razor sharp at the edges which allows them to bite through almost any solid substance, including vampire skin._
  * _Their teeth are also venomous, affected by the vampire venom that flows in their mouths._



**_Organization_ ** _:_

_They usually live in covens and are governed by one large one, called the Volturi, but there are also several smaller groups._

**_Abilities_ ** _:_

  * _Cold Ones possess superhuman powers, such as speed and strength and have incredibly keen senses and can hear for miles and see in total darkness._
  * _Additionally, some Cold Ones might also display additional gifts like foresight, telepathy or other abilities, depending on the gifts displayed in the human being before the transformation._



**_Transformation_** _:_ _We can be changed into Cold Ones from another Cold One’s venomous bite._

**_Weakness_ ** _: As far as I know Cold Ones can only be killed if they are torn apart limb by limb and burned._

_Please note that this list might not be complete as I’ve just completed the list from what I could remember._

_I would be entirely grateful if you would take the time to respond and inform me if my thesis of Cold Ones and Impavidi being the same creature is correct._

_I am looking forward to hearing from you._

_Yours sincerely,_

_Swan Song_

Bella read through her rather long E-Mail again and hesitated to send it. What if she created more problems than solving them. But she had not told the addressee why she wanted to have that information. She had made it seem as if she were scientifically interested, but what if this person was really a member of the Wizarding world and her parents had worked so hard to stay hidden from it. Could it be that the Wizarding Community in America was more advanced than the one in Britain?

Do or do not do. She remembered the advice from the wise master Yoda from her father’s Star Wars Marathon and she just clicked send and was surprised when the confirmation came back that it had been received. What had she expected? That the mail server would through back her mail? Unfortunately, by sending it she had inadvertently complicated her entire family’s situation.

* * *

In the small bedroom Renée finally rolled off her ex-husband panting heavily as her body was glistening in afterglow. She could not remember being that well sated since their separation.

“Merlin, I missed that.” Charlie gasped trying to catch his breath pulling Renée closer to him while she nuzzled his shoulder and kept him trapped with her left leg.

“Me too, Charlie.” She answered. “Luckily, we still managed the silencing charm in our haze or we would have woken up Bella.” 

“Yeah, that would have been even more awkward then the one time she caught us because she thought that we were having a nightmare due to our screaming.”

Renée road with laughter in remembrance and Charlie joined her. “Yes, that was truly embarrassing.”

“Now, she is old enough to understand and all I can think of is that I would like to take the head off any boy that comes near her.” Charlie told her, and she nodded and interrupted him. “Except Jacob.”

“Yes, Except Jacob.” He confirmed. “He is a good kid and in terms of supernatural beings rather normal.”

“Better choice than Draco for sure.” Renée agreed. “Making Draco into a Succubus was a brilliant idea. She will probably stay clearer of him or continue disclosing her location.”

“No, trust me. She won’t stay clear of him if the noises she made in her ‘shared dreams’ are any indication.” Charlie remarked. “But we might have won some time to find something to protect her from him.”

“And she was omitting and evading any questions concerning her Edward or the Cullen’s.” Renée said. “Did you notice that?”

“Yes, I did.” Charlie growled. “But there isn’t much that I can do except forbidding her to stay with them or visit their home. They are still together in school and I can’t prevent them from picking her up and taking them to school.”

Renée contemplated and shook her head. “Actually, there is a way. But it would need some preparation”

“Is your Hogwarts house showing my dear?” Charlie asked bemused.

“Naturally.” Renée answered winking. “You don’t have any radar traps, do you?”

“Ah, this is Forks. Not really.” Charlie answered wondering where this was going.

“Well, you could set radar speed limit traps near the school. It would bring money into the community funds and raise awareness to speeding.” Renée suggested.

“I still don’t see how this affects the Cullen’s” Charlie answered hesitantly. “They are ripe. I’ve looked at their finances. Speeding tickets won’t hurt them.”

“No, but you could use their speeding offences as an excuse to force Bella to go to school in her own car or with you.” Renée smirked, yet Charlie still wasn’t convinced.

“Why are you so convinced that they will tap into this trap?” he asked relishing in Renée’s touch.

“Because they are Cold Ones and they don’t have to fear all the dangers we normal ones have to fear in case of a crash, so they are bound to display dangerous behavior.” Renée answered.

“Ah, Ok.” Charlie grinned “Now it makes sense. I’ll make a proposal to the city council first thing in the morning.”

He shifted and trapped a chuckling Renée under him again. “Now, how about round two.”


	8. Chapter 8

After a long and sleepless night Bella’s alarm went off and she groaned. She hadn’t had any nightmare, but she had been unable to find rest due to her overactive mind. She could not explain it, but it felt as if something was coming and it wasn’t the dread of her looming finals. Was it Victoria? The Volturi? Other nomadic vampires? Maybe she shouldn’t have written that mail in the dead of the night. What if she lured other wizards to Forks only to be slaughtered by the army of vampires. Wait! Right. Her vision from the cave! Maybe that was what she was feeling. The army of vampires. So that wasn’t just a dream? It had felt so real and as she vaguely listened to the news on the radio about the raising dead toll in Seattle she stopped and, in her tracks, and addressed her parents, who were also in the kitchen. The way they moved around each other was more comfortable than the day before so Bella smirked knowingly into her morning tee.

“Do you know what’s causing the death toll in Seattle?” she asked her father who answered hesitantly.

“I’m only in contact with the muggle law enforcement and the feds have apparently dispatched a team from Quantico, but so far there seem to be no leads.”

“Do you think the MACUSA will investigate?” she casually enquired and saw her parents freeze.

“How do you know that term?” Renée whispered urgently, quickly sitting down next to her at the tiny table.

“Ahm,… Draco mentioned it once.” She responded hesitantly and observed her parents throwing each other a quick urgent look.

“He deduced from my accent that I was somewhere in America and told me that the MACUSA is a ministry for the Wizarding World.” Bella omitted that he had urged her to go and find them.

Charly cursed heavily and had she used that sort of language Renée would have washed her mouth, but it seemed that her mother was thinking along the same lines.

“Ok. America is big.” She muttered distraught. But if the Malfoys were using the Macusa to find them then it could become problematic. Bella’s protection was her priority.

“They might investigate if there were evidence that the supernatural is involved.” Charlie answered and so far, there is no evidence for that. “But until we know for sure I want you to come straight back after school.”

Bella protested. “So, I’m grounded? That’s not fair.”

“Yes. You are.” Charlie answered grinning and received an annoyed hit on the back of his head from Renée.

“Or did you really think that we wouldn’t detect the hidden motorbike behind the house?” Bella groaned. Of course, her father would find the bike.

Renée contradicted him, and her ex scowled back at her: “Bella, you are not grounded, but if yesterday was any indication, we can’t postpone your training any longer or you will lose control of your powers. And that could attract all sorts of danger.”

“And the fact that it keeps me from spending time with Edward is an added bonus for you.” She remarked, and her father nodded enthusiastically while Renée wiggled her head.

“Well, he seemed nice, but I do not particularly like you being close to their vicinity after knowing what they are.”

“They are vegetarians.” Bella protested while her parents doubtingly rose their eyebrows. “Meaning they only feed on animals. Not humans. They are no danger to us.”

“Then why do I have the feeling that your ‘accident’ in Phoenix was more than you’ve told us.” Charlie told her, and Bella gulped. Now that her parents knew about the Cullen’s they were re-evaluating each moment.

“Ah, well because there was more.” Bella murmured hesitantly and could feel that her parents were focusing on her again.

“Out with it.” Charlie ordered impatiently tapping his fingers on his mug. “Did the Cullen’s hurt you?” There was a dangerous edge to his voice.

Bella shook her head. “They didn’t. I would be dead without them.” Her parents were gaping at her and she felt that she needed to elaborate.

“The animal attacks last year? They weren’t real animal attacks. Those were nomadic vampires: James, Victoria and Laurent. James was a tracker and latched onto my scent and wanted to have my blood. The Cullen protected me and in order to protect you we split up and drove cross country, but James tricked me, and I went to him willingly to protect you.” Bella pointed at her mother, who frowned holding her breath.

“He used my records at school to find out about your address, but as you weren’t at home he stole the tape of my first ballet lesson and lured me to my old ballet studio. I thought that he had you, which is why I went there only to realize that it had been a trap. The Cullen’s found me in time and killed him and Edward sucked James’ venom out of me. Thus, saving my life.”

“He bit you?!” Renée shrieked and her teacup burst, and Bella nodded showing her the scar and her mother grabbed her hand and examined it thoroughly murmuring something under her breath and Bella could feel the magic swirling around her hand.

“That scar is a time bomb.” Renée mentioned. “We need to get rid of it. I’ll look into it.”

“What if they feed on magical creatures? Would they be able to gain some of their powers?” Renée mused, and Charlie choked on his coffee. That was another disturbing idea and Bella shrugged but ignored the question. In the back of her mind lingered the memory of James hunting her because of her unique ‘alluring’ scent. What if wizards smelled different to the Cold ones? More inviting.

* * *

In New York…

“So, you are telling me that you jeopardized our existence because you’ve created a webpage?”

A middle-aged burly man thundered at another one who winced and nodded. “Yes, Sir. But… in my defence I believe that the female writing to me might be reliable and if she has seen those vampires then the magical world is already compromised. I believe that we should investigate and if necessary obliviate her.”

“I see.” The burly man contemplated.

“And her descriptions are actually too detailed to just have observed them. I think that she actually has dealings with them.”

The burly man read through the mail again and asked. “How, do you know that she is a female? There is no indication that she is.”

“, Mr. Finch there are multiple indications that she is a female as there are several sentence structures used, that are favoured by females. Now her use of vocabulary is quite intriguing as she mainly uses vocabulary of the American variety, but one or two words could indicate a British influence. And she clearly didn’t give her real name, but the pseudonym she used could indicate that she is actually in danger.”

“Graves.” The burly man sighed. “Please don’t tell me that you are reading something into it again which is not there.”

“But I’m not!” Graves defended himself. “She used a German email service and apparently a VPN router which indicates that she is careful. The term ‘Swan Song’ refers to an ancient belief that swans sing a beautiful song just before their death, having been silent during most of their lifetime.”

The burly man rolled his eyes. “Or it’s just her name. Song does sound like an Asian name, doesn’t it?”

Graves shrugged. “Maybe. Last name. Swan. … Song… Swan.” He suddenly remembered something and straightened his back. “Holy bimbam.”

“Come again.” Finch required.

“Ahm. I just remembered, I got a letter from one of the Malfoy’s of Britain enquiring about a missing Wizarding Family with the last name Swan and now that name pops up again. I mean what are the odds?”

“The Malfoy’s have no saying in the States. We have enough of their sort here anyway.” The burly man reminded him sternly, but I admit that there might be something worth investigating.”

“So, I’m allowed to proceed?” he asked with begging eyes, but Finch shook his head.

“No, Seattle is our main priority right now. The FBI team has found indications of multiple killers and having two serial killer in one town at the same time is already very unusual, but there seems to be a hole horde of killers and the way the bodies were mangled, the MACUSA has reason to believe that we are dealing with something from our world.”

“Any idea what it could be?” Graves asked but the other shook his head. Until we have resolved the Seattle case this (he pointed at the printed email) has to stay on your desk.

Graves shoulders slumped in defeat and shuffled back to his desk and opened his Seattle case files while his boss was coordinating with other aurors.

He filed through the medical reports and frowned. The muggle pictures of the bodies were hard to take in as the bodies were so wrangled, but forensics indicated that they barely had blood in them. They had been sucked dry. His gaze fell on the printed email again and back to his files. Had really nobody connected the dots? That was impossible. But there weren’t many vampires registered at the MACUSA as they evaded capture as long as they could and not a lot dared to cross the pond from Europe as they knew that they would be hunted down.

He would not let this go. It had to be connected.

* * *

Bella was sitting silently in the school’s cafeteria and barely listened to the mindless chatter, but her mind was elsewhere. Edward had picked her up from the house in the morning and had been astonished when Renée had opened the door and greeted him enthusiastically. Her mother actually had invited him in for a quick chat until Bella would get her things and had watched him squirm to get out of this situation as it had been quite clear that he was unable to enter the house. Bella hadn’t known that her mother could have such a mean streak. In the car he had asked when her mother had arrived and Bella, knowing how bad she was at lying to him just told him the closest thing to the truth. That her mother had unexpectedly popped in to say hello. Edward had also confirmed her suspicion when he had mentioned that Renée had smelled after Charlie, which would indicate that there had been more, and Bella had cheered happily, while Edward’s gaze had become guarded and again. 

“It doesn’t mean that they are getting back together.” He had reminded her, and Bella had nodded. “Isn’t she still married to Phil?” his voice hat taken on a little condescending note.

Bella had then dared to challenge Edward a bit by saying:” Well, maybe he keeps her hanging in bed. He may be younger than her, but Mum always had a strong sex drive. Not sure if he can keep up.” Her left finger had teasingly wandered up his right upper-leg and she had seen her boyfriend struggle, but he had punished her with stubborn silence afterwards. Bella had not known what had come over her, but it had just felt so right to tease him.

When he refused to converse with her she let her mind wander to her blond secret. It wasn’t so different to what her mother was doing. Only that it wasn’t real and in her mind. So in a way she was cheating on the vampire. And who could blame her. Edward wouldn’t give in, Jacob was quite sexy, but she could not imagine herself with him like that and Draco was just too mouth-watering, but unfortunately, she had not dreamt of him last night and she could feel that this essentially added to her frustration. Draco had somehow developed into her release of sexual desire. She suddenly coughed and spluttered as she felt fingers slowly move up her inner thigh. Had Edward changed his mind? She looked to her side, but Edward’s cold hands were wrung around the coke can and she could see that he was in fact holding his breath. The feeling didn’t stop, and she felt shivers running down her back and growing dump. There was nobody and suddenly she had to bite back a gasp as she could feel something tease her clit. It felt so familiar. So much like Draco’s touch. She clenched her legs shut in an effort to stop it. She was in the middle of the Cantina, for god’s sake! She could not start moaning here. But she desperately needed release! Another moan nearly escaped her lips and she squirmed in her seat although she tried to stop herself. _Stop!_ She thought and could almost hear a faint _“No, my love.”_ and a chuckle that she immediately connected with Draco _._ She was crazy. She had to be. The ghostly fingers didn’t stop the ministrations at her mental plea. Instead it seemed that another was added, stretching and sliding. She needed to get out of here! With one hand she gripped the edge of the table and with the other she grabbed her backpack, while scanning possible exits. The sweet torture continued and if it was really Draco, then he wouldn’t be done with her anytime soon. _Shit!_ The rest of the Cullen’s were making their way to the table. They would surely smell her little problem. Jaspar looked partially pained and curious, while Alice and Rosalie were looking between Bella and Edward and Emmet was just grinning knowingly. She couldn’t run, her knees would buckle, and she was fighting her laboured growing breath. Bella jumped. It felt as if Draco had just replaced his fingers with his hot tongue. _Cheeky bastard!_ She couldn’t run anywhere to get rid of this problem as the Cullen’s would follow her anywhere and unfortunately, she didn’t have her car with her. She needed to get out, she would burst any second at Draco’s skilful ministrations. Where would she be safe? Her mind went back to her house, where no Cullen could enter, especially her room. She had imagined doing it with her favourite blonde in her room, but she couldn’t escape now. She shivered, thought of her room and suddenly she felt a pull at her navel, everything around her spun and then she landed on something soft with a thud. Her backpack made a louder clunk. She focused her eyes and touched her bed. There was no mistaken it. She was in her room and for the first time she let out her laboured breath and mourned loudly, closing her eyes to find Draco in her dreams.

* * *

Back in the cantina

Edward jumped up and looked around, but it seemed that nobody had seen her disappear. He waved his hand over Bella’s seat, but it was empty.

“What just happened?” Rosalie asked with shaky voice under the human hearing range.

“Dunno.” Emmet murmured. ” Thought Edward was finally giving it to her. Naughty boy.”

“Except. It wasn’t me.” He snarled under the human hearing range. “I don’t know what happened. She suddenly smelled, smelled, ahm, so, you know, like this…” He gestured with his hand, apparently not daring to say it out loud. Emmet snickered something under his breath that sounded suspiciously like. “Virgin, Virgin.”

“Well, where is she?” Rosalie sputtered hastily scanning the surroundings. “How could she just disappear?”

“No idea!” Alice sighed obviously trying to Force a vision. “I’m having difficulties seeing her lately.” The others frowned at that.

“Well, her feelings were all over the place.” Jasper shook his head.

“We need to find her. Quickly.” Edward took the incentive. “We don’t know where she is or what has happened to her. She could be hurt or worse.”

“Yeah, right.” Jasper nodded. “Rosalie and Alice, you check the toilets, Edward, you search the class and locker rooms, and we are searching outside. Esme should check if she is home, although I doubt it.”

* * *

_She felt him kissing her thighs. First on top, then across the soft skin, inside, and then right on the warm junction of her thighs. A torturous caress. She gasped as she felt his lips and breath ghosting over her molten core. Now she could watch him at least as he was finally visible to her. The combination of seeing him and feeling his sensuous ministrations were quite exhilarating. He looked up at her with a smirk, hovered over her, and she sat up to meet him._

_His lips connected with hers softly, just barely grazing the delicate skin. He reached up and carefully removed a lock from her face. Her dark curls cascaded over her shoulders as he pushed her back down on the bed. Draco's hands ran through it, feeling her soft locks._

_He let his fingers slide back down to the place where she wanted his touch so badly, and she couldn’t stop herself from arching off the bed as his fingers met her bare, swollen flesh again._

_Bella raised one of her legs and wrapped it around the back of his legs, pushing her body closer to his. He moaned into her mouth as he felt her pelvis align with his. “Not so fast, my love.”_

_Bella could feel him through the fabric of his pants. Why was she already lying naked in her bed when he still had his dark silken pants on was a mystery to her. She bit her lip raising her upper body to meet his soft kiss. The warm wetness of his mouth on her now exposed breasts snapped her back to the present. Why did he take this much time with her? She needed him inside her. He was now sucking and licking her nipples._

_"Mmmm…" she moaned arching her back slightly. “Draco, please…” she whimpered as he teasingly grinded into her. He was just as aroused at her. She could feel it through the fabric._

_“Please, what?” he rumbled breathlessly stealing another deep kiss from her._

"Please," she panted.

_"What do you want? What do you need, Bella?" He asked in a low, whisper, smirking at her again. Lowering his free hand, he brought it to her entrance and pushed a finger into her again._

_She huffed, her breath uneven._

_"You!" She said it softly. She was already desperate and knew that she had to tell him to not do this again as she would soon write her most important exams._

_"Me?" He teased her while adding another finger into her softness. Slowly pumping it in and out of her he watched her squirm underneath him._

_"What do you need from me?" He asked pulling the two fingers from within her and letting them dance lazily along her breast, over her nipple, her wetness creating a slippery path, not enough to satisfy her though. The spot between her legs ached again. She needed him._

_"Mmm…I want…" She said softly, he tweaked her nipple and she moaned._

_"What was that? I couldn't hear you…" He teased._

_"I want…" She said trying to make her voice louder…he rolled her nipple and she arched up._

_"You want…?" He played with her. That was not fair, Bella concluded. He was teasing her and better lived up to her expectations. Especially as she would miss classes, this afternoon._

_She nodded her head. "I want…I want…I want you, now!" She tried, her voice broke._

_"But what do you want from me?" He whispered, leaning down into her ear, before licking the shell of it._

_Bella shuddered, she couldn't take this, she was pulsing painfully between her legs._

_"God dammit, fuck me, Draco!" She cried, snapping from not being able to take his teasing._

_"My pleasure." She heard him chuckle and as she locked her hazy gaze with him saw his hot smirk satisfaction._

_Bella shrieked when Draco flipped her over suddenly. They had never done this before in her dreams! Not like this. Holding herself steady on all fours, which was rather difficult to balance, Bella could feel his harden length press against her leg. Needily, she rolled herself against it. Why did he tease her that much, today?_

_"Please," she said begging with one final whimper._

_Positioning himself properly at her entrance, he pushed his throbbing length into her and groaned hotly. Sliding completely into her he waited as one final method of teasing feeling her wiggle her hips to get his moving._

_"Draco," she said desperately. "Please!"_

_Draco began moving his hips against hers. Very slowly. Teasingly slowly. Bella started to pant as pleasure began ringing throughout her body. His length along her tight walls, gripping him tightly. Each thrust made her belly clench with some spasm of bliss. His groans and hot breath on her back added to her pleasure. She felt him pulsing inside of her, it heightened the pleasurable feelings. Building intensely._

_Each thrust making her body hum in ecstasy. His body rocked against hers, she could feel his chest rub into her back, their hips crushing together. Bella couldn't barely control her moan as Draco grabbed a breast with his left hand and thumbed her nipple._

_"Ah!" She hissed._

_She pushed against him, meeting his thrusts. "Mmm….harder…." She begged, her voice needing._

_Draco apparently did not need to be told twice. He thrusted more harshly, his member hitting new spots inside of her, Bella clenched and cried out as his burning member hit a particular spot inside of her. The tip of his manhood rubbed it, he gripped her hips and moved a little faster, grunting in her ear, his low voice driving her insane._

_"Ah…nghh….ahh…Draco!" she cried out his name as he roughly hit her spot again._

_She felt his cock going deeper, their bodies rolled together, his throbbing need humming inside of her tight and wet womanhood. His hands made her hips crash into his own. Bella’s body trembled, the waves of pleasure hitting her making it hard to support herself. Draco pulled out suddenly and roughly flipped her on her back, before thrusting back in. Bella shook her head side to side, as her pleasure seemed to burn her alive. Her legs wrapped around his waist. She brought him as close as she could get him, which was still not close enough. He gave a rough grunt._

_Reaching down between the joined hips, Draco pinched her clit as Bella let out a loud cry._

_"Draco," she bellowed out feeling as waves of pleasure smashed into her. Letting her fingers dig into his shoulders, Draco rode out of his orgasm, his body jerking in motion towards her as her walls clenched around him. He roared, bit the juncture where her neck met her shoulder as he was emptying himself in her. Draco gasped before collapsing on top of her, his member buried within her depths, starting to soften._

_Breathing deeply Draco pressed his face into the warmth of her sweaty neck, with her chin resting on his head. When he was able to contain himself, he rolled himself to the side of his mate, his now limp cock still imbedded in her. Admiring he pulled her close to him. This shared dream had been much more intense than the others and he was desperately looking forward to the real thing._

_Bella fought to catch her breath and she could not explain it why this dream had been more intense than usual. What if he was real? As she lay in his arms she realized, that he hadn’t pulled out of her yet. Was he not finished? It felt as if he didn’t want to let go of her. With his free hand he brushed another stubborn lock out of her face._

_“I need you Bella.” He murmured pulling her closer._

_“Are you an incubus? Or succubus?” Bella asked, and he frowned confused, staring at the ceiling and then at her again._

_“No.” he answered with humour in his voice. “Who told you that. I’m a wizard. You’re a witch.”_

_“Yeah, I’ve realized.” Bella consented, and Draco rolled over trapping her under him again and Bella moaned when he slipped deeper into her again. “Not fair.”_

_“So, you have done magic.” He murmured meeting her gaze lovingly. “What have you done, love.”_

_“Can’t think.” Bella murmured dazed as she could feel him growing hard again and he chuckled. “Alright, I… ahm. I… somehow managed to…ah….” He was teasing her again with very small movements, which caused her to shiver again in anticipation. “I magically created chaos in our house… ah… and … and… earlier I somehow disappeared in school and reappeared in my room. Ah!” she moaned as Draco slid deeper into her core again before he stopped again._

_“Can you please do me a favour?” she asked breathlessly, and Draco tenderly kissed the juncture between her neck and shoulder again while rumbling: „Anything.”_

_“What you did today, ah… I was in school… ah… I have graduation is coming up… ah… let me finish please?... ah.” Draco was teasing her again by moving slowly, but she had to get this out. “These are the most important exams of my life.” She gasped again. “I can’t be distracted during exam time. So, please don’t do this again.”_

_Draco contemplated and grinned:” Under one condition.”_

_Bella exhaled glaring at him. ”No.I can’t tell you my whereabouts, Draco. My parents forbade me to do this. Though, it’s possible that I have already compromised our safety by writing to that Graves guy.”_

_“You wrote to Perceval Graves?” Draco happily grinned at her, his eyes shining._

_“Not because of you.” She answered brushing her finger over his chin, which he answered with a sharp buckle of his hips and a kiss on her inner hand. Bella moaned._

_“We could do this all-day long.” He suggested hotly into her ear and Bella laughed. “That sounds to good to be true.” Maybe he was real, and magic had brought them together? But she couldn’t leave Edward. She was bound to become one of them. The Volturi were not forgiving._

_“When are you graduating?” Draco asked locking his silvery eyes with hers, kissing her juncture again. He seemed to love kissing that spot which tingled each time he did this._

_“In a few weeks” she murmured enjoying his rejuvenated ministrations as he was kissing, sucking and biting her skin while roaming his hands over her back and her breasts again, while holding her close with her other hand. With his hips he started with slow lunges again which became deeper with each trust and finally he lunged forcefully through her shuddering flesh, while Bella met each trust with her hips, moaned and gasped, while Draco grunted kissing and pinned Bella’s hands over her head, while she kept him locked between her legs. Dazed satisfaction soon washed over her, a fast, crippling tide of shudders and screams followed by his final deep thrust to end it all. Bella tried to catch her breath._

_The second time had not taken as long, but it had been equally satisfying and Bella slowly drifted into sleep._

_At the Cullen’s house:_

_“You’re saying she just disappeared?” Carlisle asked after they had spent the entire afternoon looking for Bella._

_“Yes, Puff and she was gone.” Emmet explained snipping his fingers._

_“Charlie said that he found her fast asleep at home on the phone.” Esme told them. “He said that she is a bit stressed out because of graduation.”_

_“But that doesn’t explain how she disappeared?” Rosalie exclaimed, while they saw Carlisle become slightly nervous._

_“Anything else about the Swan’s that might be a bit strange?” he asked rubbing his chin._

_“Renée.” Edward said. “She was at the Swan’s house this morning and Bella was evading the question on when or how she came by. It’s almost as if she appeared out of nowhere.”_

_“Carlisle?” Jasper asked. “Why are you so afraid?” All the bronze eyes turned to him as he gathered himself and exhaled._

_“The reason why nobody can hear Bella’s thoughts might be because she is a hunter.”_

_“What the heck are you talking about? What’s a hunter?” Emmet asked. “Why do you think that?”_

_“Shortly after I was turned, there was a big Plague and thousand people died.” He sighed. “A plague, which left bloodless bodies behind. Church and state soon realized the reason for the plague and that’s when the hunters appeared. I don’t know where they came from, but they were efficient at finding our kind and eliminated us. They were never wrong and were immune to our powers. And just killed us Cold Ones, no innocents, with their weapons, that could penetrate and kill our bodies. How that was possible still puzzles me today. They stopped the Plague and many of us fled to the continent. The Volturi manipulated the Vatican and the Inquisition well enough to accuse them of witchcraft and the witch trials eventually spilt from the continent over to Britain and they became the hunted and disappeared.”_

_“So, they did have powers?” Alice enquired. “What are they?”_

_“We never found out.” Carlisle answered. “Some say that nature created them to protect humankind, others say that they were witches and wizards. One of the historians in Voltera believed that they could have been guardians of the “Old Celtic Religions”, which has still monuments all around Europe, but that nobody knows anything about. The only thing I know is that they were dangerous.”_

_“But what makes you think that the Swans are one of them?” Esme frowned._

_“The rejected entry of their home. It was one of the traps set by those hunters. Only humans could enter the houses. Cold Ones could never enter. It is the same. It could be possible that Bella starts to grow into her powers if this is something hereditary.”_

_“So what do we do?”_


	9. Chapter 9

_Bella was sleeping soundly in their shared dream, contently snuggled to his body. It felt so natural and he regularly brushed the juncture between her neck and her shoulder, which elicited a heartfelt sigh from his beautiful mate. It was the exact point where the Veela in him had bitten her all those years ago. Although she had fallen asleep she had not yet woken up in the real world or their shared dream would have ended abruptly. Only he knew that by holding their connection he was strengthening their bond and thanks to one very old tome in the Malfoy library he had found out how he could do this. He looked around the unfamiliar, rather small place. Normally he had drawn her into his mind, yet this time he had teased her magically and let himself be drawn to her mind. Was this her room? It looked tiny compared to everything he was used to. It looked cosy, yet positively muggle. So, he was right. She was living in the Muggle world and when he concentrated he could make out rain in the distance. He squinted his eyes and saw some pictures and post cards pinned to the wall, but he could not see anything telling him about her whereabouts. No, wait. There was a bird raising from the middle of a circle. It looked like a flag. But as he was just lying connected with Bella on her purple bedlinen he couldn’t get up without waking her and she was quite exhausted after their steamy session earlier. But he needed to find out where she was. He needed to get up to find a clue._

_‘Accio.’ He summoned it to look at it. Why hadn’t he thought about that earlier? ‘Phoenix, Valley of the sun’ it read. His heartbeat accelerated, and he eagerly turned it over and frowned. It seemed that when she had said that she wouldn’t reveal her whereabouts she had meant it. Her mind was blocking the information of the address. He could only see parts of the text, which was apparently written by Bella’s mother sending her greetings from Phoenix from her and a guy called Phil, but there was not much else. It sounded as if she lived permanently in that town, but why didn’t Bella stay with her? Had the Swans separated to throw any potential pursuers off their trail? He cursed. Bella’s mind was protecting the rest of the information, but at least he had one hint where he could start._

_She was in danger and he could feel it. And his father had opened marriage negotiations with the Parkinson family against his will. This felt as if he was running out of time._

_He wanted Bella and nobody else. The thought of being forced to procreate with somebody else made him and the Veela in him nauseous. But would he be able to control himself once he was in the same room as Bella. He couldn’t just jump her and there was her boyfriend to consider that she seemed unable to split up with. The Cold One. The information he had detected about them had worried him even more. They had incited the witch frenzy all over Europe. He just wanted to find her and bring her to safety, hidden away from any danger, although he knew that if she was the same Bella than he knew as a young child, then she would not allow that._

* * *

Charlie trudged up the stairs with more tea for Renée who was lying next to their slumbering daughter, brushing her cheek and telling her to wake up. But they both knew that she would only wake up when Draco would let her go from his controlling dream or when she decided to wake up. That he had been able to lure her away from school was worrisome and spoke about his growing influence on her. It had caused him quite some unrest when the Cullens had called him at work telling him that Bella was missing. Renée had been back at Wales, when he had informed her what had happened and now his mother-in-law had changed her search and was now looking for something to protect her from the Malfoy heir, before something more severely could happen to her. Her normally invisible Veela bite mark was now shining on the juncture where her neck met her shoulder.

“Still no change?” he asked his ex-wife who shook her head.

“She is not moaning any longer, just sleeping, but she does not wake up. She might have exhausted herself apparating back into the house and the slipping of magic in sleep.” Renée answered accepting the tea.

“Didn’t you have plans to see some football game at the Blacks?” she asked him, and he nodded. “Yeah, but Bella’s more important than some game. Remember when we thought about which position in Quidditch she would be best at?”

“Yes, I remember that you wanted her to become a chaser whereas I was convinced that she would be a seeker.” Renée smiled remembering simpler times while brushing her daughter’s darkened hair. She paused.

“Her physical changes, did you notice them?” she asked Charlie who nodded solemnly.

“Yeah, she grows into your family’s trademark features. But has it ever been as pronounced like that?” he asked her, and she shook her hair.

“Not that I know off. But it might be a side-effect. Morgana was known to be the most resilient of my ancestors and Bella is currently fighting against multiple aggressors. Her body probably tries to prepare her.”

“Or Draco is turning her towards the dark side.” Charlie sighed anxiously.

“Morgana wasn’t evil.” Renée hissed. “She was misguided, but certainly not evil. Bella never had a mean or dark streak, so chuck that theory out of the window.”

“Alright.” Charlie conceded raising his hands defensively. An angry Renée was not something to be trifled with.

* * *

“Why won’t he wake up?” Narcissa’s voice shivered next to her regal husband, who seemed to be unable to make up his mind about their son. He partially looked worried and partially smug.

“He’s connected with Bella and probably tries to find out about her whereabouts.” He explained, but Narcissa wasn’t pacified as she was sitting on her son’s bed, who snored almost silently with a wide grin plastered onto his angelic face.

“You shouldn’t have opened marriage negotiations with the Parkinsons. You drove him to this recklessness.” She accused him.

“We need an heir for the line and let’s face it. If the Swans don’t want Bella to be found, then we won’t find her.”

“He will. She is the only thing he can think about, talks about and apparently dreams about. Look at his desk. He even draws her! Do you really think that he would touch any other women than Bella? And besides. He hates Pansy.” Narcissa defended herself and jumped when her sleeping son started to move again. Stretched contently and slowly opened his eyes.

He yawned and stretched contently and jumped a bit when he realized that his parents were in the same room, while he had a hard on throbbing under his blanket.

“Ever heard about knocking?” he mumbled frowning. “Why are you in my room?”

Narcissa chortled. “You were asleep for over two days! Nobody was able to wake you. We were worried!”

“Oh” He murmured astonished. “Didn’t feel that long. And it was worth it. I know now that Renée lives in Phoenix. Finding Bella shouldn’t be that hard now. So, now you can stop your stupid negotiations with the Parkinsons.” Draco told them gleefully, but Lucius shook his head.

“I’ll only stop with the negotiations once you’ve found Bella and you have completed the bonding process. And I mean the entire process.”

* * *

“So, Charlie is not coming today?” Sam asked Billy as he put the prepared burgers on the overladen table next to the large bowls of popcorn and beer. “He’ll be sorry missing the game.”

“No, I don’t think that he could even concentrate on the game when Bella’s apparently sick.” He told them, and Jakob jumped up from his seat. It was the first he had heard of it since their fallout.

“Has the leech bitten her?” He was shaking slightly in anger and Sam shook his head. “No, she wasn’t bitten. Embry and Paul had her house on their tour. From what they could overhear she had bailed on the Cullen’s and somehow managed to get home. Renée is in the house as well and apparently her grandmother is on the way.” Jacob calmed slightly but still wasn’t happy.

“And the bike is still hidden behind their house. So maybe she used this to get back from school?” he suggested, and Jacob shook his head. “Nah, Charlie would go ballistic if he knew that we still have them.”

“B.T.W. Morgana was some sort of evil sorceress, right?” Embry cut it. “I mean in the movie Merlin, she was.”

“If you are referring to Morgan Le Fay, then there are several literary sources about her, but she is a myth. If I remember correctly, then she was the half-sister of King Arthur and yes, some kind of powerful witch or fairy. Why do you want to know?” Emily told him, her bookishness paying off.

“Am, well this sounds crazy, but I think that Bella’s mum said something about Morgana being her ‘most resilient ancestor’. The window was closed so everything sounded a bit distorted.” 

The entire pack was silent until Emily took the initiative again. “Morgan Le Fey is a Celtic Myth. So, if she had offspring, then there would be quite a few generations of people and statistically a lot of people around the world could be descended from her, even without knowing about it. So, maybe Bella is related to some apparent evil witch, but we need to consider the possibility that the myths itself are inaccurate. Many Legends were rewritten by the overlaying culture turning powerful or wise women into evil witches because women were supposed to be meek and subservient to men. I mean the Celtic Culture in their earliest forms was known to have matrilineal tendencies. Maybe Bella is coming into her inheritance. She told you that she was having déja-vus, right?” Jacob and Billy nodded.

“Well, there are stories about Morgan Le Fay being a seer. What if Bella inherited the powers from her parents?”

“Sounds legit. She must have some powers.” Jacob mused. “When we had our little disagreement, she pushed me away from her without touching me. Telekinesis, perhaps?”

“That means she isn’t that weird after all. Maybe that’s why she’s so attracted to the leech?” Leah mused.

“Perhaps.” Billy nodded.

Their musing was suddenly interrupted by the ringing of the phone, which Seth answered standing closest to it. His jaw dropped at the information coming from the person at the other hand. His face lit up and beamed at his sister.

“He’s woken up! Dad’ woken up!” he happily cheered with everyone else in the room.

* * *

Bella was heartily digging in her breakfast her father had brought up to her bed. That’s something she could get used to. She had no idea that she had spent sleeping for over two days. Two days! It hadn’t felt that long, but she was feeling well rested and extremely hungry. Renée had told her that Edward had called several times ‘fishing’ for information and telling them about homework, which mostly consisted of revisions of learned context for their looming standardized graduation exams. Bella had sent the Cullens a text message telling them that she was on the mend and that she was thankful for their concern. Her mother had gifted her with a very beautiful silver armbrace with runic inscriptions and one amber crystal imbedded in the metal and which would help her control her powers. Renée was now quizzing her about her knowledge in Latin as she was informed that this was the most common use of modern day spells, but each culture had apparently different spells which were often forgotten nowadays. She had found out that her parents were literal walking encyclopaedias on ancient languages. Something that had to do with their upbringing, apparently. When she had asked if they had written evidence of the old, now mostly extinct languages, it had been her who had barely been able to contain herself. What would philologists give for texts like that to prove the language development in the world. And she had access to it due to her family. Studying linguistics was now something that she wanted to consider for her future career. But the Cullen’s would probably not like that and only Carlisle was the only one who had lived long enough to see the development from Early Modern English to present-day English first hand. Had he also seen the language development of Italian? She definitely had to ask him about that. Bella never had Latin in school as it had not been part of her curriculum, but she remembered having learned it from an early age. It had been her first foreign extinct language, at that time she had never understood why she had been forced to learn it, but now she understood. She hadn’t continued practicing Latin in Forks, and it had showed for a few minutes after Renée had started her quizzing her. But now she seemed to get her touch back. Maybe she wasn’t as stupid as she believed herself to be.

“Well, that does sound good already.” came an older voice from her room door and Bella squealed in delight at seeing her grandmother. She scrambled to her feet and hugged her tightly while the elder woman chuckled and return the embrace.

“But Latin is only the beginning, dear.” She told her when they broke their embrace again. “Most of the people in the Wizarding World use Latin phrased spells as they have forgotten their own traditions, but we need you to get you up to speed with the old language.” She touched Bella’s chin appraisingly. “After your graduation of course.”

“Don’t remind me of that.” Bella groaned. “I’m gonna fail anyway.”

“Nonsense, Dear.” Her grandmother said. “You’ll do great and afterwards I recommend taking a gap year to catch up on your magical schooling.”

Her parents standing in the door frame nodded eagerly and Bella saw the most curious thing. They weren’t standing there awkwardly. Her Dad had his right hand around her mother’s shoulders while she was leaning into him as if it was the most natural thing. Did her mother have marriage problems with Phil that she had overlooked? Her grandmother also followed her gaze and smirked knowingly.

At the idea of a gap year Bella became uncomfortable again. How should she explain it to the Cullens? She could not risk their lives with breaking her promise. Would she be able to take Edward with her?

“Well, with your wearing of Morgause’s bracelet your magical slips should be a thing of the past.” Her regal grandmother told her. “And after graduation we will start your training for good”

“But why not now?” Bella enquired. Victoria was still a looming danger and she needed to be prepared.

Her granny smiled happily at her. “Because I know how eager you are to learn, Bella. Especially when it comes to magic and I do want you to get good scores in your finals. But…” She teasingly put her index finger on her chin as if she was thinking hard. “this might be a good start and not too heavy for the beginning. She pulled a book from behind her back and Bella wondered where she had hidden that before.

She gladly took it and smiled. “Fantastic beasts and where to find them by Newt Scamander.” The title sounded familiar, but she could not remember why.

“Oh, Merlin! That was your favourite book before going to sleep.” Her father told her, and Renée nodded groaning in remembrance.

“No, one more, one more, you begged.” She mimicked. “So, it should be familiar to you.”

“Good thing she can read this on her own, this time.” Charlie remarked.

**Later in the kitchen**

“Did you find something that can block the Veela bond?” Renée asked her mother who nodded.

“Yes, but you would need to give me a strand of your hair and Charlie needs to do the same. We can bind those two strands together with magic and create a magical block, so that she can wear it as a bracelet and it will weaken the influence of the Veela on her, but we should do this after her graduation.” The elder lady explained.

“No, we have to do this as soon as possible.” Renée protested, but Charlie was already contemplating why. “Will she show signs of withdrawal? His voice became slightly shaky.

“The book wasn’t clear, but it depends on the level of the established contact between the Veela and his mate. And after the last incident, I’d say chances of her going through withdrawal are high and I want her to get superior results for her graduation.” She told them. Charlie snorted at that and was hit by Renée again. “Ouch!”

“But Draco could try something when she writes her exams.” Renée threw in, but her mother’s grin widened, and she smirked dangerously, which had Charlie taking a step back.

“No, Draco won’t be able to distract her, when he is on a wild goose chase during her exams. I “leaked” some possible whereabouts of Bella to the Auror he uses to find her, and they will have to search several large cities on the planet as the places where Bella supposedly will show up are time sensitive.”

“But he knows that she is somewhere in America. He deduced it from her accent.” Charlie argued.

“Don’t worry.” Bella’s Grandmother snickered. “He still needs a wand permit and magical visa to enter and thanks to my contacts in the ministry and within MACUSA, he won’t get that easily. Let’s say that Asterix’s “Permit A 38” comes to mind.”

All three adults chuckled darkly at the idea that the Malfoys would be trapped inside the ministry for several days.

“And there are other reasons, why MACUSA might block their visa process for some time. So, we have time.”

* * *

Bella pulled in the parking lot at school, her mind reeling. How should she explain the Cullen’s that she would be gone for a year training with her granny? How should she get rid of Victoria’s threat? She couldn’t leave Forks unprotected. What about Draco? She knew that although she kept dreaming of him, he seemed to be real and with her being able to do magic. She had to find out if he was real. What would she do if he was real? Her heart jumped in elevation at that thought.

A soft knock on her door brought her out of her reverie and she saw her boyfriend standing there with a worried look on his face. God, she was glad, that he couldn’t read her mind. That would have been embarrassing to explain.

She got out of the car and greeted him with a kiss to wipe his worried look off it. He responded with a slight chuckle, but Bella mentally sighed. It wasn’t fair to compare him to Draco but kissing her vampire boyfriend didn’t feel as right and exhilarating as it used to. Instead, the hair on her neck literally straightened and warned her of immediate danger.

“Well, somebody, must really have missed me.” He chuckled when they broke apart.

“I’m not going to indulge your vanity, Edward.” She teased playfully trying to lighten her mood, but Edward froze and opened her car door again, sniffing intently.

“Someone’s been there,” he murmured in Bella’s ear. His voice was strained. “And your little bag of extra clothing is missing.”

“I swear that no werewolves —” Bella started to say with accelerated heartbeat, but he interrupted her. “She had always kept a small bag of additional clothing in her car, mainly to have an excuse for being prepared for Alice impromptu sleepovers.

“Not one of them,” he interrupted me quickly, shaking his head. “One of us.”

His tone made it clear that he didn’t mean a member of his family and Bella felt the blood drain from her face. If they had been in the car then it would have been easy to get into their house if her family hadn’t warded it.

“Victoria?” Bella choked feeling the urge to wanting to magic faster than ever.

“It’s not a scent I recognize.” Edward answered her solemnly, pulling out his phone calling one of his family members.

“One of the Volturi,” Bella guessed and contemplated that she needed to call her family too to warn them.

A minute later Edward told her that Emmet and Jasper would sweep the woods and get back at them.

“We should skip school today.” He suggested with a worried look. “You could come to our place and we’ll keep you safe.”

But Bella shook her head. “No.” the stone in her bracelet lit up which indicated that it blocked her doing uncontrolled magic. Edward’s eyes narrowed. “The safest place beside my house is school. Like it or not. Besides, we are graduating soon, and I need a good score, or my grams is going to murder me.”

“Your grandmother? Not your parents?” he enquired frowning in confusion. “But you are already accepted at Alaska.”

“Yeah, which means my grandmother expected other universities and is not particularly happy. And it’s becoming abundantly clear that she’s calling the shots. Look, no vampire will enter school when it is full. We’re save here until after the classes and in the meantime Emmet and Jaspar can search the woods.”

Biology drowned on and they had received a surprise exam as revision. As one of the few who had finished early Bella propped up her head on her arms and enjoyed the silence. Edward had been forced to sit in front, while she purposely had sat in the last bench next to one of the bonsai projects. But the silence didn’t last long. She could hear the hasty scribbling on the paper of her collegues, the occasional curse… and squeaking. Was there a mouse in the classroom? She listened more closely. There were two sets of squeaking and it came from her left.

* * *

Later in the evening.

Edward hadn’t hesitated and driven her to the Cullen’s home even though she had protested as she knew how Charlie and the two other family members would react at that news.

She sighed. She was treated with a rare sight. The Cullen’s were quarrelling. Edward with Alice as he accused her of missing whatever was going on. Emmet and Jasper had reported that the scent had disappeared. Esme, ever being the optimist suggested that perhaps it was coincidence, but Edward argued that it had to be the Cullen’s.

Alice pursed her lips. “I don’t think so. The timing of it was too perfect. . . . This visitor was so careful to make no contact. Almost like he or she knew that I would see. . . .”

“He could have other reasons for not making contact,” Esme reminded her.

“Does it really matter who it was?” she asked. “Just the chance that someone was looking for me . . . isn’t that reason enough? We shouldn’t wait for graduation.” Bella’s hair straightened, and her bracelet’s stone lit up again. Yes, she had just found out that she was a witch, but the Volturi were too powerful and she was to stubborn. And she had calculated correctly. The Cullens disagreed with her on that. _But Draco would mind._ _Oh! For merlin’s sake._ Her brain couldn’t give it a rest could it. She nodded at the rebukes.

“Well, perhaps we are looking it the wrong way. You said that the raising death toll in Seattle suggests that someone might be creating an army.”

“It looks that way, but we don’t have enough evidence for that for now.” Carlisle tried to calm her with his kind smile, but it didn’t help.

“Well, you say that you are watching the volturi’s decisions, you are watching Victoria’s decisions and she escaped you and the pack. So, she most likely knows that you are a seer Alice. What if she turned somebody on a whim and uses him to create the army that she will unleash onto us. Wouldn’t that blindsight you?”

The entire family of beautiful faces gaped at her in surprise. Alice soon recovered and nodded. “Yes, that would probably work, but I still would have seen her decide to do this.”

“Not if she was planning by proxy.”

“Wait.” Esme cut in. “You said ‘him’”. “Why?”

“I don’t know. I mean it is just a thought. But there’s a boy from Forks that went missing in Seattle about a year ago, shortly before the first murders happened. Dad is calling Seattle PD every week on behalf of the parents, but no recovered corps matches his description, he doesn’t seem to be the kind of boy to get himself in trouble and he had a bright future ahead of him.”

“What does that have to do with our stranger?” Rosalie drawled in annoyance.

“I don’t know.” Bella sighed. “Hm. Alright. Well, we know that the stranger is obviously familiar with this region and he made sure not to contact you. We know that he couldn’t have acted alone, and he obviously did take my reserve clothing for a reason. This may sound bizarre, but I keep having nightmares about an army of one of your kind, with shining read eyes moving towards Forks and I see Riley Piers, the missing boy, leading them.”

“Perhaps you just have an overactive imagination.” Esme suggested with a friendly smile. “You took all the information you’ve got and your mind tried to connect it somehow.”

“Perhaps.” Bella nodded. “Or I’m right and he was scouting the area in preparation of an ambush. Think about it. He took my clothing which has my sent all over it. To pass it around probably. Victoria could have manipulated him enough so that he plans and carries out the ambush, while she watches from afar.”

“Sounds reasonable to me.” Emmet said, but his voice was strangely distorted. Bella frowned.

“Thanks Emmet.” She told him, but didn’t expect the astonished faces.

“You could hear him?” Rosalie asked with terror on her face. That was unexpected. She took a step away from Bella.

“Hm.” Carlisle cleared his throat uncomfortably. “You weren’t supposed to hear. He spoke it under the normal hearing range.”

“That doesn’t make sense.” Bella complained raising her right eyebrow in annoyance. “Why should I be able to hear that? It’s physically impossible. It’s more likely that Emmet is so eager for a fight that he has spoken it a bit louder than usual.”

Emmet laughed and nodded eagerly. “There is no fooling your mortal girlfriend Edward. Was just trying to lift that depressing mood a bit.”

“Hilarious.” Bella commented dryly, feeling her phone vibrate. Seemed that her parents had figured out that she hadn’t come home as she had promised them to do. That had taken time.

* * *


	10. Chapter 10

There weren’t many joyous occasions in the small hospital but even the staff could not help to smile at the elated and relieved mood. Their patient having suffered a massive stroke in the woods had miraculously recovered and woken up from coma without any lasting effects. It really was a miracle that nobody could explain, but they were happy for the family.

“Is there anything you can remember?” Billy asked Harry who was surrounded by his family.

“Not much, to be honest. … I mean there was this red-headed leech choking the life out of me and just before everything went dark around me I could hear her hissing …‘that smell’? I could swear that she called him something else. Then she was gone. The next thing I remember was Charlie’s voice urging me to stay awake. No, it felt more like a command? His warm, glowing eyes. It sounded like Charlie, but I could have sworn that he was speaking in another language. And I have this image of a Charlie shortly hovering over me with glowing golden eyes, but I have no idea what to make of it. My dreams were quite strange when I was in coma. So, I could have imagined it.” Harry hesitantly told him with weak raspy voice still affected from the aftermath of his intubation tube. He temporarily closed his eyes.

“Charlie saved my life.” He took another breath. “That I am sure of.”

“I didn’t do anything, beside basic first aid.” Charlie’s voice came from the door, Renée silently behind him. “But I’m glad that you’re alright.” Everyone in the room turned around towards him. g

“Better than alright.” Sue mentioned glowing happily brushing over her husband’s hair, who sighed contently at her ministrations. “Apparently there won’t be much physical repercussions.”

“Told my Kong Fu was strong.” Harry joked, and the entire room chuckled.

* * *

Bella was lying on her bed, after her mother had admonished her for not immediately responding. So, she had informed her about the lone vampire, who had stolen her extra clothing out of her car and whose scent disappeared. The Cullen’s had sworn to protect her, but Renée was not really buying it. Bella had seen it in her mother’s eyes, yet she also didn’t want to jeopardise Bella’s future. She knew she had to call Jacob, but she did not want to destroy his probably joyful mood he was in after Harry had woken up from his coma. Her parents had raced to the hospital at hearing that information. Her graduation was within a week. But the death rate in Seattle was staggering. The Cullens were still observing the situation but were sure that it was new-borns. Every fibre of her mind told her that they would come here, creating havoc on their way. Her parents were visiting Harry and had said that they would think of something. But she wasn’t quite convinced. Her grandmother was back at her home preparing for Bella’s stay. What could she do? She sat up again. Draco had advised her to go to New York. She listened to the bowtruckles playfulness as they were having fun climbing up and downs her walls. They were real. Magic was real. MACUSA was real. Yes, she was supposed to lay low, but people were dying and she knew the reason for it. Wasn’t it her duty to prevent further deaths? She couldn’t just sit and do nothing. She had to do something. Bella stood up, grabbed a small black bag stuffing her purse, mobile phone and passport inside. Everyone always wanted to protect her. She was growing sick of it. Now, she had to protect those without powers. Something landed on her shoulders and Bella shrieked before she realized that the three bowtruckles had decided to come with her. It was right with her. They were good company.

A few moments later she stood in front of their fireplace which grew to adjust her to her size and come alive. Her heart was beating mercilessly, she felt a bit faint. This was it. Her parents would probably try to stop her. But she had to do something. She had watched her family members do it a few times. With shaking hands, she grabbed the hidden pot containing floo powder, stepped inside and took a few deep breaths to calm her nerves. She still could change her mind. _No! I have to do this._ “MACUSA, Woolworth building, 233 Broadway, Manhattan, New York.” She uttered throwing the powder into the fire. As soon as the powder connected with flue flames it leaped up and cocooned her entire body as if to protect her. She felt the blood rushing through her body as she lost her footing and she was ejected upwards into the black void. Her body was spinning viciously, the air became tighter and stickier making it harder for Bella to breath. She was suffocating! That was a bad idea! Once in a while she could hear voices in passing. She wanted to scream as she sped up even more. She had lost control and was not getting enough air. Then just as she was about to faint, she felt her feet hit something and her landing hard on her back while sliding forward. She groaned and coughed and spit the inhaled ashes out when her fast slide stopped and enjoyed the cool, smooth marble surface she was lying on.

“No!” she heard an angry raspy exclamation somewhere next to her right. “I just finished cleaning the Floo network entrance hall. Now I can start all over again!”

Bella carefully shifted her head towards the voice and opened her eyes taking in the most curious creature. It was short and skinny with a bald head and bat-like ears. Its glowering face seemed to establish that this creature was an elderly creature. Bella smiled sheepishly at him and fought to get up. When she had finally succeeded she could see why he complained about that. The entire dark tiled floor consisted of several big fire places, but she could clearly detect the one that had spit her out. She had brought a cloud of dust and ash with her that was now settling down on the black tiles. Her gaze was drawn to her own clothes and the dust that covered her. She was looking as if she had cleaned every chimney and brought the dust and ashes with her. Trying to brush it off her, she profusely apologized to the strange creature. “I’m so sorry. So sorry, Sir.”

“Yeah, your kind always is missy.” The creature answered sourly. “You could have come to the opening hours. Then you’d not have made such a mess.” Bella’s shoulders slumped. Of course. Why had she not thought about opening hours? She had most likely come in vain. No wonder the building seemed so empty.

“I’m really sorry, Sir.” She apologized again. “I didn’t think about the lateness of the hour. Just needed to talk with Auror Perceval Graves.”

“Ha!” the creature coughed loudly. “’bout time that greenhorn saw some action.” He giggled darkly. “You’re in luck missy. He’s still cooped up in his office.”

Her spirits lifted again, and the excitement came back to her. “Really, where is his office?” But to her dismay, instead of an answer, she was hit with a storm hose lifting her up and flipping and rotating her around in the air.” A second later she was landing unsteadily on her two feet again.

“Now, you’re clean enough to go further.” The creature growled with a mean glim in his eyes. “Thank you.” She nodded.

“Now, straight ahead, turn left around the corner, then after the third staircase right around the corner. Then in the atrium you take the main stairs and then the elevator to Magical Law Enforcement. Now, missy. Get lost.”

Bella tried to follow the directions, which wasn’t quite as easy as the grumpy creature had only given the most basic information. When she finally reached the atrium, she couldn’t help but gasp in wonder. It was reaching up to the skyscraper, each floor had several lights. There were high windows letting the light from outside illuminated the dark There was a floating clock indicating the threat level for the magical community. It was beautiful. She carefully stepped into the old, ornamented elevator but could not find any buttons. “Ok. Now how do I get to Magical Law Enforcement?” she murmured more to herself and shrieked as the door closed and the cabin began to move upwards. Her jaw dropped as the lift ascended further upwards. The architectural beauty was simply mesmerizing. She moved past several levels where she could occasional see other similar creatures and twice, she could spot humans in robes. 

The elevator stopped abruptly, and an airy voice piped up. Level 206 Magical Law Enforcement. Bella stepped back collecting herself, her heartbeat accelerating again. She hadn’t thought this through. She wasn’t only endangering the Cullen’s, but probably even the pack. But people were slaughtered in Seattle. Something had to be done. Still looking at the floor she took a step out of the lift and collided with something.

Stumbling she caught herself in time and looked up. “I’m sorry.” Both of them said at the same time. He had a tired, yet friendly look on his face, wore a black tie suit and held a coat draped over his left hand.

“We rarely get visitors this late at night.” He remarked kindly. “I’m afraid I’m the last one left this late.”

Bella nodded in understanding. “Well, so I was told downstairs. But my decision to come here was rather spontaneous. I’m here to see a Perceval Graves?”

The young man took a step back in surprise. “Well, you found him. I’m Perceval Graves. What can I do for you?”

She took a deep breath not quite sure how to handle herself and decided to go for it. “My name is Bella Swan. I sent you an e-mail concerning Cold ones a few weeks ago.”

His eyes grew excited. “Of course! I apologize for not having responded until now, but we unfortunately have a more pressing situation that demands our attention.” He stepped back letting Bella step out of the elevator.

“The more pressing situation being the death toll of Seattle?” Bella enquired. “Because that’s the second reason why I’m here. I know what’s causing it.”

“Do you now?” he asked. “Reading your e-mail, I assumed as much. In that case we better get to work. Come with me, please. You need to tell me everything you know. And I mean everything” He turned and made an inviting gesture to follow him, which Bella gladly followed.

He was pacing in the buzzling British Ministry of Magic. Even though somebody had gone through tremendous length to keep him from entering the US, where his beloved mate dwelled, he would be allowed to use the direct Floo line between the Ministry and the MACUSA to enter. As soon as the MACUSA would open its doors in the morning again. There were still several hours due to time difference, but he rather stayed here and would take the first possible Floo to get there. He needed her. She was everything he could think about. Once there, he surely would be able to locate her.


End file.
